Douglas County certified under state's Performance Measures Program

Talk about it

The Office of the State Auditor has released the 2011 Performance Measurement Report, which lists the cities and counties that chose to participate in the Performance Measures Program and were successfully certified by the Office of the State Auditor to the Department of Revenue for certain benefits.

This was the first year of the program, and there was strong participation from cities and

counties across Minnesota: 113 cities, or 13 percent, have been certified, and

38 counties, or 44 percent, including Douglas County, have been certified. Entities in both the Metro Area and Greater Minnesota chose to participate.

The Performance Measures Program offers benefits to cities that are

certified to participate. A county or city that was successfully

certified for 2011 is eligible for a reimbursement of $0.14 per capita

in local government aid, not to exceed $25,000, and is also exempt from

levy limits for taxes payable in 2012, if levy limits are in effect.

In 2010, the Legislature created the Council on Local Results and

Innovation to develop the Performance Measures Program. In February

2011, the Council released a standard set of ten performance measures

for counties and cities that would aid residents, taxpayers, and state

and local elected officials in determining the efficacy of counties and

cities in providing services, and measure residents' opinions of those

services. Participation in the standard measures program by a city or a

county is voluntary. Counties and cities that chose to participate in

the standard measures program had to officially adopt the 10 performance

benchmarks and file a report with the Office of the State Auditor by

July 1, 2011.

The 2011 Performance Measurement Report, which lists the certified

cities and counties, can be found at:

http://www.auditor.state.mn.us/default.aspx?page=20110927.000.

Information on the Performance Measurement Program, including reporting

requirements and links to relevant statutes, can be found at:

http://www.auditor.state.mn.us/default.aspx?page=20110525.013.

Tags: news, updates, auditor, measure