Following the state’s budget crisis last summer, Gov. Mark Dayton selected 15 Minnesota mayors, including Richfield’s Debbie Goettel, to serve in the administration’s Tax Reform Advisory Group for Local Government Aid. The group was announced during a press conference at the Capitol Thursday.

The group—which includes mayors from a broad range of communities such as St. Cloud, Northfield and Cloquet—will review and discuss policy issues related to local government aid and, more specifically, how to best pay for local services while keeping property taxes down.

“The legislature’s continuing cuts to LGA have increased the financial pressures on local governments throughout Minnesota," Dayton said in a press release. "I look to this group of distinguished mayors to advise us on whether [local government aid] should be revised, or simply funded."

According to Revenue Commissioner Myron Frans, the state has seen a major shift in how its three revenue streams (property taxes, sales tax and income tax) are balanced. In 1999, property tax revenue represented 30.4 percent of the state’s revenue with sales and income tax representing 34.7 and 34.8 percent, respectively. In 2010, the property tax revenue percentage jumped to 39.8.

“We’re relying more and more on property taxes,” he said. “In order to fix this problem we decided to do the smart thing and ask the experts, [our mayors].”

“We’ve done nothing but cut, cut, cut, cut in order to make sure we can provide the necessary services to [people in our cities],” Cloquet Mayor Bruce Ahlgren said at the conference.

Richfield has been working to wean itself of local government aid for a few years, budgeting in anticipations of aid cuts. However, Goettel said the cities efforts to make cuts have taken a toll.

“You start cutting [staff] and resources and that is highly impactful to your community,” she said. “You only have to ride down 66^th Street in Richfield to see that we have crumbling infrastructure.”

As far as expectations for the group, Frans wouldn’t speculate. However, he and others believed both Republicans and Democrats agreed that change needed to happen.

“This isn’t a partisan issue,” Dave Kleis, St. Cloud mayor and co-chair of the group, said. “Different cities [face different issues], … That’s why we are as group trying to tackle this issue, not as individuals.”