St. Paul Mayor Chris Coleman has been an outspoken critic of proposed cuts to Local Government Aid, but outstate cities, too, would suffer from cuts, says the Mesabi Daily News.

LGA payments to Greater Minnesota cities have fallen by 37.5 percent in real dollars since 2002, according to a report from the progressive think tank Minnesota 2020. This year, LGA will likely take another hit.

The results of LGA cuts, advocates and city administrators say, would be either increased property taxes or reduced services.

For cities in rural Minnesota, where property values are lower, cities were much more dependent on LGA than metropolitan cities — with about 43 percent of city revenue provided by the state aid, according to the Minnesota 2020 report.

“On the Range, there’s not as strong a property wealth, so what occurs when you cut LGA is your property levies go up so your tax rate goes up,” Peterson said. ”So equally valued homes receiving roughly the same amount of service will see much higher (taxes) there than it would be in a community with a stronger tax base.”

In 2010-2011, Gov. Tim Pawlenty’s budget would cut LGA by an effective 31 percent, compared with what was expected in 2009, according to the Coalition of Greater Minnesota Cities.

From 2002 to 2009, city property tax levies in Minnesota increased by about 38 percent, according to the Minnesota Department of Revenue.