State Government Shutdown Shouldn't Interrupt Hopkins Services

While many individual residents could feel the effects of a state government shutdown, Hopkins has little to lose because the city already lost most of its state money.

That conclusion has caveats: that any shutdown doesn't last long or hit essential services, such as the courts.

“We are not taking any extraordinary measures at this time,” said Jim Genellie, acting city manager.

So-called “intergovernmental revenues” make up just 3 percent of the city’s $22 million in revenue this year. That pool includes state money that helps pay for police and fire services, community development and roads.

The big sources of state revenue have been gone for years. Local Government Aid—or direct state money to cities—slowed to a trickle in 2003, and the city hasn’t received any since 2008.

The state has also long withheld hundreds of thousands of dollars that were supposed to reimburse Hopkins for a state-mandated “” on people’s primary homes. 

While the city has already received this year’s allotment of state money to augment police and fire services, Hopkins would feel the effects from a total shutdown that closes the doors on courts and other institutions that were largely spared during previous shutdowns, Genellie said. Hopkins officers, for example, rely on state criminal justice data networks, and arrests must go before state judges.

“You can readily see that if those services weren’t available, it would have a more immediate impact,” he said.

These uncertainties have also left Hopkins without key information the city needs to plan its budget. For now, planners are assuming there will be no state money and no additional tax levies to pay for shortfalls in areas such as police and fire services.

“There’s some major unknowns at the moment,” Genellie said. “It’s going to be another difficult year—not just for Hopkins but for cities across the state.”

SOURCE: House Research Department

SOURCE: City of Hopkins