The Dakota County Board of Commissioners received a legislative update from the county’s lobbyists at the state and federal level at the Tuesday, March 25 meeting of the General Government and Policy Committee of the Whole.
Director of Government Relations at Stinson LLP Dan Dwight spoke to the commissioners on the state legislature. Since the last update, Sen. Justin Eichorn (R-Grand Rapids) resigned from the Senate after being charged with attempted coercion or enticement of a minor. Despite yet another upset at the state capitol this year, the math of the majority party doesn’t change “so Senate operations continue to carry on as they have been,” said Dwight.
Gov. Tim Walz presented a revised budget update on March 21 that reduced the budget by an additional nearly $250 million.
“Most of the cuts happened in the education area, but there were some Health and Human Services cuts,” said Dwight.
Those cuts to education include a 5% reduction to special education transportation reimbursements and lower state funding to private schools.
Dwight foresaw “a lot of forces of opposition” against the budget and said “It would not surprise me if we go into overtime.”
At the federal level, commissioners heard from Downs Government Affairs Principal Tom Downs and Aurora Strategic Advisors Principal Mike Erlandson.
Downs discussed the Year-End Fiscal Year (FY) 2025 Continuing Resolution, the budget bill signed by President Trump on March 15 to keep the government open. The budget provides funding through Sept. 30, 2025 with similar levels of funding from FY 2024. Changes include a $6 billion increase to defense spending, a $13 billion decrease in non-defense spending, and an elimination of community project funding, often referred to as earmarks, for FY 2025.
Dakota County had applied for federal funds for several projects including the River to River Greenway, I-35 Bridge and county state aid highway (CSAH) 50 interchange project and Recycle Zone Plus. It is unclear if in the budget development for FY 2026, the projects submitted in FY 2025 will have priority.
Beyond the county lobbyists, Director of Dakota County Libraries Margaret Stone spoke about the March 14 executive order that attempts to dismantle among other agencies the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS). The order mandates that IMLS “shall be eliminated to the maximum extent consistent with applicable law, and such entities shall reduce the performance of their statutory functions and associated personnel to the minimum presence and function required by law.”
Stone describes the IMLS as “a small organization with a big impact.” The IMLS, first signed into law in 1996 and reauthorized by bipartisan vote several time since, is the spiritual successor to the Library Services Act signed into law by President Eisenhower in 1956.
The law initially meant to promote federal funding for rural libraries, but in recent years the IMLS has worked with libraries across the nation coordinating interlibrary loans and deliveries and providing access to various databases from newspaper archives to consumer reports to E-book Minnesota which provides e-books to public libraries in schools. IMLS also provides funding for staff of the Minnesota Braille and talking book library.
The bulk of library funding comes from the state government, with Minnesota libraries receiving just over $3 million in federal funding. The funds coming from IMLS, however, cover areas whose services aren’t covered by state funds and therefore could end if the agency’s doors shutter.
“People are going to notice this,” said Stone.
In a statement, the IMLS called the executive order “extremely shortsighted and perilous for the millions of Americans who rely on our public, school, academic, and special libraries. Library funding draws less than 0.003% of the annual federal budget yet has enormous impact in communities nationwide.”
According to Stone, the total budget of the IMLS is $0.75 per capita.
The IMLS is funded through September 2025, receiving funds from the March 15 budget signed by President Trump a day after he issued the executive order attempting to reduce the agency’s impact. If funding is not continued afterward, the functions of IMLS, like staff for the Minnesota Braille and talking book library, access to various databases to the functioning of inter-library loans could end.
Like many of the executive orders issued by the Trump Administration, the speed, lack of information, and uncertain legality of the president’s ability to shutter agencies without Congress, leaves many questions unanswered.
“This is happening so fast with no information. We don’t know what to do,” said Stone.
Commissioners discussed the possibility of the state picking up the $3 million tab for the agency’s Minnesota library portion in order to keep these services running. They also discussed how they can communicate the potential upcoming end of these services to their constituents.
Commissioner Mary Liz Holberg was skeptical of spending staff time on communicating potential budget cuts that could be stopped via lawsuit like several other recent executive orders out of the Trump White House that have sought to shrink government and shutter agencies.
“This is very speculative. I heard a lot of ifs. There’s lawsuits all over the place […] I’m very reticent to spend our political capital on things that are two or three steps removed,” said Holberg.
Commissioner Halverson disagreed: “In terms of it being premature, I don’t feel like it is because people are asking these questions.”
Dakota County Director Dr. Heidi Walsch cautioned the commissioners about the scope of potential incoming budget cuts at both the state and federal level. Given the $6 billion state deficit in the coming biennium and the federal government’s intent to end organizations and programming, more cuts are certainly coming to Dakota County. Therefore, how should commissioners communicate that?
“If you communicate about cuts to libraries and then it turns out there’s also going to be cuts to the disability world, to workforce—it could be any number of our areas—will you want to communicate about all those areas? I just want you to think about how does this fit with whatever other cuts might come and be clear about it ahead of time,” said Director Walsch.
For more information about the Dakota County board of Commissioners, visit www.co.dakota.mn.us/Government/Board/Pages