Direct General Expenditure* Categories Excluded

in Calculating “Adjusted Municipal Expenditures”

Excluded category Reason for exclusion
Education In Minnesota, these services are provided by school
districts, not municipalities.
Social services and In Minnesota, these services are provided primarily by
income maintenance county or state governments, not municipalities.
Air transportation While a few Minnesota municipalities provide air
transportation services, most do not.
Sea and inland port While a few Minnesota municipalities report some
facilities spending for inland port facilities, most do not.
Corrections With exception of temporary holding facilities, the
correction function in Minnesota is performed primarily by
county or state governments, not municipalities.
Natural resources While a few Minnesota municipalities report expenditures
for natural resources, most do not.
Sewerage While many Minnesota municipalities provide sewerage,
within much of the metro area sewerage is provided by
regional government, not municipalities.
Solid waste While many Minnesota municipalities provide solid waste
management management, many others do not.
Judicial and legal Minnesota municipalities perform some judicial and legal
functions, but courts and most major judicial functions are
provided by county or state governments, not
municipalities.
Miscellaneous Unlike in 2002, some Minnesota municipalities did report
commercial activities “miscellaneous commercial activities” spending in 2007.
However, in order to maintain comparability with the 2002
analysis, miscellaneous commercial activities are
excluded from the 2007 analysis. This is a very small
category of municipal expenditures and has very little
impact on Minnesota’s per capita municipal spending
relative to the national average.

* “Direct general expenditures” excludes spending on utilities, such as water

supply, electricity, gas, and transit. In most states, these utilities are provided
either privately or by another level of government other than municipalities.