League of Minnesota Cities

technical workers looking to relocate. While Minnesota, like all other states, experiences trends or conditions that can negatively affect our business climate, we have cultivated a resiliency that gets us through any economic storm. For example, the Great Recession of the early 2000s generally had a less severe impact here than in other states and regions. Some of the resiliency can be attributed to a strong and historic state/local fiscal partnership centered on a revenue sharing program that helps to keep property taxes at reasonable and comparable levels from city to city, attracting residents and businesses alike. The program helps to ensure that hundreds of cities in the state are not solely reliant on local property tax payers to help fund essential services, and are less prone to the negative effects that a volatile economy can have on municipal budgets. With all that said, cities are not without their share of economic challenges, including the need for more affordable housing and workforce-driven housing, inaccessibility to reliable broadband service in some areas of the state, a need for more accessible and affordable daycare options for young families, and attraction and retention of young people in more rural communities. Additionally, a wave of Baby Boomer retirements is leaving city governments, themselves, with growing gaps in institutional knowledge among remaining employees and with significant vacancies to fill in the coming years. The League, though, continues to work with our member cities, as well as public and private sector partners to seek solutions to those current and emerging challenges. We are proud of these collaborations and proud of what our member cities and city-based employers have collectively achieved to help foster economic growth in our state. It’s impressive what a community of cities, working together, can accomplish.