a day ago
Here's how the 2025 MN Legislature impacted Ramsey, Washington, Dakota counties
Bonding project requests for Dakota, Ramsey and Washington counties didn't end up in this year's bonding bill, but each county still expects some impacts from the 2025 Minnesota Legislature.
Ramsey County officials were able to avoid some cuts and cost shifts this year, such as those involving disability waivers, that could have impacted county levies, said County Manager Ling Becker.
Ramsey County officials note that the $55 million state investment in replacing the Miller Building, located on the campus of the Anoka-Metro Regional Treatment Center, the state's largest psychiatric hospital, will benefit area metro counties. The new 50-bed psychiatric residential treatment facility will alleviate pressure on the overall system, Becker said.
Other statewide projects that county officials see as positives include $35 million for the modernization of the Social Services Information System.
'We really have a system that's really old and hard to work with, and so we've been really fighting hard with all the counties in the state for this,' said Mary Jo McGuire, District 2 Ramsey County Board Commissioner at Tuesday's board meeting.
Washington County officials made seven individual capital projects requests to lawmakers for this year. Because none were included in the bonding bill, the county board plans to resubmit them next year.
Nevertheless, several regional and statewide funding initiatives included in the bonding bill may indirectly benefit Washington County, according to county officials. That includes the Local Road Improvement Program which received $47 million and the Local Bridge Improvement Program which received $31 million. County officials were also happy to not see cuts to county program aid, said Jan Lucke, deputy county administrator.
'There's certainly important projects for the county to complete, we'll continue to work on finding the funding. Hopefully there's a state commitment to do projects in 2026 and some of these we'll just re-ask for,' said Washington County Administrator Kevin Corbid.
Some changes in the state budget modestly impact the county in human services, Corbid said. As Congress prepares the federal budget, additional impacts on human services that could trickle down to the county are also on the radar of county officials, Corbid said.
Meanwhile, three projects in Dakota County received $4.7 million in funding through the Environment and Natural Resources Trust Fund.
They include preservation and restoration projects at Lake Byllesby Regional Park, Thompson County Park and Cannon River.
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