Politics & Government
State Aid Won’t Help Hopkins Art Center Much
Levy limits that restrict city spending will likely keep Hopkins from using local government aid to shore up art center losses.
A proposal to use new state money to fill in art center losses is looking unlikely.
Due to a bill the state Legislature passed, Hopkins’ Local Government Aid will go from zero in 2013 to $289,907 in 2014. But that bill also contained levy limits that restrict how much cities can increase their budgets.
Hopkins hasn’t yet received a final calculation of its levy limit. But Finance Director Christine Harkess said she expects the limit to be equivalent to the city’s 2013 levy—meaning Hopkins couldn’t raise taxes.
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If that’s the case, at least some of the new money will likely go toward other uses. City officials are still putting together the budget and don’t yet know how much of the money, if any, would be available for the Hopkins Center for the Arts.
“We do have a funding gap at the moment,” Harkess said.
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Hopkins has a bumpy history with LGA. Funding dropped from $855,000 to $420,00 between 2002 and 2003, according to House Research’s Local Government Aid Lookup tool. Hopkins received just $50,000 between 2004 and 2007. That money was halved in 2008 and dropped off altogether in 2009.
When Hopkins was still at the $50,000 level for LGA, it directed the money to the Hopkins Center for the Arts—reportedly in lieu of a local-option sales tax.
Harkess said arts centers struggle to keep a balanced budget and the LGA money helped to close the gap. In 2012, for example, the $50,000 LGA allotment would’ve been enough to close the Hopkins art center’s $41,000 deficit.
But the center lost more than twice as much—$96,000—in 2011. Losses like those have added up to nearly $900,000 over the years.
With LGA returning next year, officials were hesitant to fund recurring expenses with such an unreliable source of money. Directing the money to the art center would solve two problems: Replenish art center losses and avoid putting the city in a position where it had to scramble to make up for vanishing funds.
“Unfortunately, that’s probably not going to be an option next year,” Harkess said.
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