Dave Titus and St. Paul Mayor Chris Coleman (right). Photo: Paul Demko

Dave Titus and St. Paul Mayor Chris Coleman (right). Photo: Paul Demko

Last Friday morning St. Paul Mayor Chris Coleman stepped up to a podium at the state Capitol, joined by a phalanx of cops and firefighters. The unmistakable message: Stop the cuts to public safety programs that Gov. Tim Pawlenty’s budget proposes.

While the press conference was typical Capitol stagecraft, it brought together some unusual bedfellows. The St. Paul Police Federation has hardly been among Coleman’s biggest fans. The union endorsed his opponent, then-incumbent Randy Kelly, four years ago and has frequently lambasted the Mayor’s handling of police issues. As recently as last fall, the police federation was running radio spots attacking the mayor for failing to meet its wage demands on a new labor contract.

But there was Dave Titus, president of the Police Federation, taking to the podium to echo the mayor’s warnings about looming local government aid (LGA) cutbacks. “Let’s make this very clear: LGA cuts will very much affect the safety of every officer, every firefighter and every citizen in this state,” Titus said. “That’s what LGA is: It’s public safety — bottom line.”

This unusual alliance was prompted by the very real specter of massive cuts to the beleaguered program. Under Gov. Tim Pawlenty’s initial proposal to close a projected $4.85 billion budget, the LGA program would be sliced by 15 percent in 2009 and then would take another 31 percent whack in 2010. Translated into dollars, this means $246 million in cuts over the next two years. That’s on top of $110 million unilaterally stripped from LGA in order to close a deficit in the current fiscal year.

While the looming budget deficit for 2009-10 is now projected to be slightly less ($4.6 billion), owing to relief from the federal stimulus bill, it’s still clear that LGA is headed for a severe haircut. Indeed, Pawlenty indicated earlier this week that the deficit adjustment would not significantly alter his budget proposal.

The prospect of such cuts has galvanized mayors and city officials across the state to lobby the Legislature to hold the line on LGA cutbacks. The Coalition of Greater Minnesota Cities has created a Web site, thanklga.org, to spread the word about the potential impact of cuts. Individual firefighters and police officers will be at the Capitol in the coming weeks making the case for LGA funding.

“If the proposed cut that has been before the Legislature gets enacted, many of the folks that we see here today will have their jobs impacted,” Coleman said Friday morning. “They might not lose their jobs, but their co-workers will, because we simply can’t respond to the level of cuts that we’re talking about here without a significant reduction in services across the board.”

“We need to fix this,” said Titus. “We need to save public safety.”

Pawlenty “held line” on public safety budget but slashed LGA

In announcing his fiscal plan, Pawlenty boasted that it would hold the line on cuts to public safety, but that claim was disingenuous. While state agencies such as the Bureau of Criminal Apprehension wouldn’t be subject to the budget ax, cuts to LGA would have a severe effect on police and fire departments across the state.

LGA was initially created to level the playing field for cities that struggle to draw sufficient tax revenues from local sources. Small towns with elderly populations and minuscule property tax revenues rely on it, as do larger cities with significant numbers of poor residents.

The town of Babbitt, for instance, located 100 miles north of Duluth and with a population of roughly 1,600 people, is slated to receive $387,600 in LGA funds in 2009 — or nearly 20 percent of the town’s general fund. Under Pawlenty’s budget proposal, however, Babbitt would lose roughly $460,000 in LGA funds over the next two years.

The town currently has four police officers. When one cop retired in the fall, his position wasn’t filled. Babbitt recently explored contracting out its police services to the St. Louis County Sheriff’s Department but ultimately decided against it.

“That was more expensive than doing it ourselves,” says City Administrator Pete Pastika. “Then we would also lose control of the police force.”

In Willmar, 14 firefighters recently retired. The fire department only has sufficient funds to replace five of them, dropping the force from 42 to 33. Now the western Minnesota city of 18,000 is looking at a loss of more than $1.2 million in LGA funds over the next two years.

Mayor Lester Heitke estimates property taxes would need to be raised 27 percent to make up for the shortfall.

“We know there’s a budget deficit problem,” he says. “We understand that we have to help solve this problem. What we’re asking is that it be solved in an equal and fair way.”

St. Paul: “It’s impossible”

The cuts facing the state’s bigger municipalities are on a much larger scale. St. Paul is slated to receive just over $62 million in LGA funds in 2009. Under Pawlenty’s proposal, however, that figure would be trimmed by $7.7 million this year and another $17 million in 2010.

While Pawlenty has suggested that cities could deal with such cuts without affecting fire and police departments, the reality is that such services constitute a huge swath of municipal budgets. In St. Paul’s case, funding for public safety eats up nearly two-thirds of the city’s general fund.

“There’s no scenario under which we can do this without impacting public safety,” says Sara Grewing, Coleman’s chief of staff. “The governor just needs to look at the numbers. It’s impossible.”

Budget scenarios drawn up by the heads of St. Paul’s departments make clear how stark the cuts would have to be under Pawlenty’s proposal. The fire department estimates that it would need to shave 59 firefighters and three administrative staff to close the budget hole.

“We would have firefighters that would be told, ‘Thanks for putting your life in danger, but we don’t need you anymore,’” says Chris Parsons, secretary of St. Paul Firefighters Local 21.

Parsons notes that the number of emergency runs the department performs has nearly doubled over the last two decades, while staffing has remained nearly stagnant. He argues that reducing personnel by 59 firefighters would put lives at risk.

“I care about the people that I work with and the citizens of St. Paul,” he says. “If we’re not safe, they’re not safe. We need to be able to do our jobs safely.”

Cuts to the police department would be equally steep. Under the scenario laid out by Police Chief John Harrington, the department would lay off 90 employees, including 67 sworn officers. It would also leave open 51 police officer slots currently vacant.

In his memo detailing the potential cuts, Harrington warns that the reductions would come at a perilous time.

“Due to the current economic and employment situation our city, state and country face, we can expect a steadily increasing rise in robberies, burglaries, domestic assaults and numerous fraud and theft crimes,” he writes. “If history is our best teacher, during times of economic distress, drug use, mental health issues and depression have become more acute. This rise will translate into increased calls for service which will tax even further our already limited resources.”