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Municipal Revenue & Taxation <br />1-E Local Government Aid (LGA) <br />Metro Cities supports Local Government Aid (LGA) as a means of ensuring that all cities <br />are able to provide basic public services without over -burdening the property tax. <br />Metro Cities' policies also recognize that our state's prosperity and vitality depend <br />significantly upon the strength of the metropolitan region. <br />Metro Cities supports recent modifications to the LGA program that will help <br />better address the needs of cities across the state, and those of metro cities in their <br />support of the state's economic growth. <br />To ensure an adequate appropriation level for the program, Metro Cities supports <br />increasing the LGA appropriation to at least its 2003 funding level, at which time <br />the appropriation was originally set by the Legislature at $586.8 million. <br />Metro Cities also supports adjusting the LGA appropriation for inflation and <br />population growth in future years, to assure that the program can continue to meet <br />cities' needs and move toward a more geographically equitable distribution as <br />intended under the new structure. <br />Metro Cities supports formula -based allocations for increases to the LGA <br />appropriation. Metro Cities strongly opposes freezes of the LGA appropriation, or <br />reductions of LGA for the purpose of balancing state budget deficits. Metro Cities <br />also opposes artificial limits or reductions that single out specific communities. <br />1-F State Property Tax Relief Programs <br />Metro Cities supports state funded property tax relief programs that are paid <br />directly to homestead property taxpayers such as the circuit breaker and enhanced <br />targeting for special circumstances and supported the recent legislative expansion of <br />these programs. Metro Cities supports an analysis of the state's property tax relief <br />programs to determine their effectiveness and equity in providing property tax <br />relief to individuals and families across the state. <br />Metro Cities supports the use of the Department of Revenue's "Voss" database to <br />link income and property values, and the consideration of income relative to <br />property taxes paid in determining eligibility for state property tax relief programs. <br />Updates to the database should occur in a timely manner and data reviewed <br />periodically to ensure the database's accuracy and usefulness. <br />1-G Property Valuation Limits/Limited Market Value <br />Metro Cities strongly opposes the use of artificial limits in valuing property at <br />market for taxation purposes, since such limitations shift tax burdens to other <br />classes of property and create disparities between properties of equal value. <br />2016 Legislative Policies 3 <br />