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Community Solutions Podcast


May 2, 2022

www.commsolutionsmn.com-  How do you know if your city is being responsible with it's finances? There are so many different ways for a city to raise money: property taxes, fees, municipal bonds, municipal businesses, fines, special assessments, etc. They spend money for capital costs and operational costs. Most of us go to look at the annual budget to find all of this information. The problem is this: much of that information isn't in the budget. Some of it is, and some of it is in the Comprehensive Annual Financial Report. How do we know the difference? Where do we find what we're looking for? Today we do a deep dive on government finance and the , oh-how-many-ways they can take your money.

It's important to understand how county, city, and school debt is calculated, why it's more expensive to borrow, and how to find the true amount you are on the hook for. Bond interest is just one kind of tax that we like to call "hidden taxes", because its not out front on your property tax statement, yet the government says, "hey, we only raised your taxes 3%, but then take a ton of money through other means, without you realizing it as a tax increase. Local government taxation and reporting are complicated issues, and no one breaks it down for you the way we do!

Important public service announcement (just because we're stand up guys), Metro Transit will no longer run Northstar Rail trips to and from Twins games. They cite a lack of funding, but as we've said before, light rail just isn't popular.

Have you checked out our Spotify playlist? At the beginning of each episode, Jason quotes some song lyrics that have to do with the subject matter of the podcast. Andrew never knows what they are, but now he can… and so can you! We’ve launched the Spotify playlist: “Community Solutions Music From the Podcast!” You can listen to Roundabout from Yes after listing to Episode 30 on Roundabouts… or kick back and enjoy a rocking playlist just for the thrill of it. We add a new song every week. Subscribe and enjoy!

Don’t forget that you can also subscribe to our podcast on iTunes, Google Play, and Spotify!