AB 256

Under current law, each county and municipality annually receives county and

municipal aid payments. With certain exceptions, each county and municipality

receives a county and municipal aid payment equal to the amount of the payment the

county or municipality received in 2012. This bill creates a trust fund designated as

the local government aid fund, to consist of moneys transferred each fiscal year from

the general fund. In the 2024-25 fiscal year, the amount transferred into the local

government aid fund is equal to 20 percent of the amount of state sales and use tax

revenues, and in subsequent fiscal years the amounts transferred into the fund for

public utility aid, county and municipal aid, per capita deficiency aid, and additional

county and municipal aid will increase by the percentage increase in the amount of

sales and use tax revenue from the previous fiscal year to the current fiscal year. In

2024, counties and municipalities will receive a county and municipal aid payment

equal to the amount of the payment received by the county or municipality in 2012,

and in subsequent years, each payment will increase by the percentage increase in

the amount of sales and use tax revenue. The bill also requires the Department of

Revenue to distribute a per capita deficiency aid payment to certain towns, cities,

villages, and counties. The total amount available to be distributed as per capita

deficiency aid payments will increase each year by the percentage increase in the

amount of sales and use tax revenue.

In addition, each county and municipality will receive an additional payment

from the local government aid fund to use for hiring, training, and retaining law

enforcement officers, members of a paid fire department, and emergency medical

responders and for local highways. Under the bill, this payment is equal to 10

percent of the total amounts that a county or municipality receives for county and

municipal aid payment and for per capita deficiency aid. If in any year a county or

municipality decreases the amount of its budget dedicated to hiring, training, and

retaining law enforcement officers, members of the paid fire department, and

emergency medical responders and for local highways, so that the amount is less

than the amount so dedicated in the previous year, the secretary of the Department

of Administration will reduce the county's or municipality's additional payment by

the amount of the decrease in the county's or municipality's budget dedicated to

hiring, training, and retaining law enforcement officers, members of the paid fire

department, and emergency medical responders and for local highways.

The bill also makes the following fiscal and appropriation changes:

1. Creates a segregated fund appropriation from the local government aid fund

for the expenditure restraint program payments and repeals the general purpose

revenue appropriation for those payments. Under current law, a municipality is

eligible to receive an expenditure restraint payment if its property tax levy is greater

than five mills and if the annual increase in its municipal budget, subject to certain

exceptions, is less than the sum of factors based on inflation and the increased value