What LGA is

Every city in Minnesota receives Local Government Aid (LGA) from the state. LGA is an annual investment intended to pay for essential services and reduce property taxes.

As the state's largest city, we receive the largest distribution of LGA funds. In 2026, that amounts to $81,754,808.

$71.9 million of that goes to the City's General Fund. The rest supports the Minneapolis Park Board and the Municipal Building Commission. 

Our city gives back to the state

As of 2021, we generate 3.5 times more in tax revenue to the state than we receive in state aid. This revenue comes from sales tax, income tax, and property tax.  

For more detail, see the 2021 report compiled by local research firm MacCallum Ross for the Minneapolis Regional Chamber.

What Local Affordable Housing Aid (LAHA) is

Metro-area counties and cities receive LAHA from the state. We use this money to address local housing needs. This includes helping organizations and individuals to develop and maintain stable, affordable housing.

To receive LAHA, the City of Minneapolis must promise to use this money to add to its current housing spending. This means we must use the funds to start new housing programs or grow programs we already have. In 2024, the City increased overall housing spending but spent less on some support services. This happened because the pandemic recovery funds came to an end.

How we used LAHA

As a condition of receiving housing aid funds from the State of Minnesota, the City of Minneapolis must commit to using housing aid funds to supplement, not supplant, existing locally funded housing expenditures, so that the City of Minneapolis is using the funds to create new or expand existing housing programs.

Between 2023 and 2024, the City of Minneapolis reduced its expenditure on “Support services, case management services, and legal services for residents in arrears on rent, mortgage, utilities or property tax payments” by $202,839.93 (though in aggregate the City’s locally funded housing expenditures increased significantly from 2023 to 2024).

The reason the City of Minneapolis reduced this expenditure is due to the prioritization of using of federal dollars (ARPA) within spending deadlines to support this activity in 2024.

Most notably, due to the nature of large-scale development, budget and expenditure will not always neatly track year over year, with some unspent appropriations rolling over into the subsequent years and actual annual expenditures not necessarily being smooth.