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Municipal Revenue & Taxation <br />Metro Citiessupports current laws providing for municipal franchise fee authority and <br />opposes statutory changes such as reverse referendum requirements or other constraints <br />that would reduce local authority and flexibility for establishing, amending, or renewing <br />franchisefeesand interferewithlocalpublicprocessesand goalsforestablishingsuchfees. <br />1-DRestrictionsonLocalGovernmentBudgets <br />Metro Cities strongly opposes levy limits, reverse referenda, super majority requirements <br />for levy and valuation freezes, or other restrictions on local government budgeting and <br />taxing processes. Such restrictions undermine local budgeting and taxing processes, planned <br />growth, and the relationship between locally elected officials and their residents by allowing the <br />state to decide the appropriate level of local taxation and services, despite varying local <br />conditionsandcircumstances. <br />1-EBudgetandFinancialReportingRequirements <br />Statelawsrequirecitiestoprepareand submit orpublish numerousbudget andfinancial reports. <br />These requirements often create significant costs to cities, and some requirements result in <br />duplication. Additional reporting requirements should have a clearly defined statement of public <br />purpose and need not covered under existing requirements and should balance the need for <br />additionalinformationwiththe costsofcompilingandsubmittingthe information. <br />Consideringthenumerousexistingreportingrequirements, MetroCitiessupportsreducing <br />the number of mandated reports. Metro Cities supports efforts to consolidate municipal <br />government financial reporting requirements in the Office of the State Auditor, including <br />an electronic submission alternative to any remaining paper filing requirements, and to <br />authorizetheuseofweb publicationwhere newspaperpublicationiscurrentlyrequired. <br />Additional statutory requirements to the local truth-in-taxation process were enacted that <br />willtake effect in 2022. While Metro Citiesrecognizes that the additionalrequirements are <br />intendedtoenhancecitizen involvement inbudget processes,the new requirementsare <br />significantand will be administratively challenging to produce and disseminate. Existing <br />requirements are expansive andwere designed to maximizecitizen engagement in <br />budgeting processes. Metro Cities supportsa legislative review of currentand new <br />requirements, with local official input, prior to the law takingeffect. <br />1-FLocalGovernmentAid(LGA) <br />ThestateÓs prosperity and vitality depend significantly upon the economic strength of the <br />metropolitan region, and cities within the region play criticalroles in fostering the economic <br />development, job creation and business expansion that underpinthe stateÓseconomichealth. <br />Metro CitiessupportsthecityLocal GovernmentAid(LGA)programasameansof <br />ensuringcitiesremainaffordableplacestoliveandworkwhilemeetingthepublicservice <br />needsofresidents andbusinesses. <br />2022 Legislative Policies <br />3 <br /> <br />