Ramsey County Board Workshop: AMC Update and Legislative Recap – May 19, 2026
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Ramsey County Board Workshop: AMC Update and Legislative Recap – May 19, 2026
On May 19, 2026, the Ramsey County Board held a workshop to receive an update from the Association of Minnesota Counties (AMC). The agenda listed the meeting at 1:30 p.m., but the transcript opening references 'this morning'; this discrepancy was not reconciled. No votes were taken. Presenters included Julie Ring, AMC Executive Director, and Matt Hilgart, AMC Deputy Director, with board and staff participation.
Discussion Items
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AMC mission, values, and past work: Julie Ring described AMC's mission 'to unite Minnesota's counties to achieve public service excellence' and its values, crediting former Ramsey County Commissioner Tony Carter for leading a major AMC reorganization. She cited examples such as a pre-legalization cannabis task force, the 2018 'Bridging Divides' initiative, and statewide coalition work on health and human services cost shifts.
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Diversity and inclusion: Several commissioners called on AMC to more actively include diverse perspectives, lived experience, and data on disproportionate impacts, noting that Ramsey County's board is one of the most diverse in the state. They also stressed the importance of staff diversity and bringing difficult or previously unaddressed topics to the table. AMC acknowledged the need and pointed to efforts to diversify speakers and programming.
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AMC governance and policy process: Ring explained AMC's 33-member voting board, 10-district structure, and policy committees open to every county, with seven-member boards receiving extra appointments. She said AMC generally seeks broad consensus rather than narrow-majority policy positions. Commissioner Zhang raised concerns about voting weight disparities between large and small counties.
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County Program Aid (CPA) and county finance: Matt Hilgart discussed the CPA formula created about a decade ago, noting it may need revision and that AMC is exploring alternatives such as better reflecting social-services costs and tax-exempt property. Ramsey County paid about $83,000 in AMC dues in 2025, roughly 4% of total dues. County officials, including County Manager Becker, asked for a clearer return-on-investment picture and a multi-year 'whole pie' strategy for reducing property tax pressure, rather than focusing only on CPA.
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H.R. 1 and federal impacts: AMC described ongoing advocacy on federal H.R. 1 effects, including a SNAP administrative cost shift starting in October. AMC sought state funding to offset it but received only about $11 million in one-time money, leaving roughly $20 million unfilled. AMC said it will continue pressing the U.S. Senate and federal delegation. The transcript states the administrative cost share is 'roughly 33 billion dollars a year,' which appears likely to be a transcription error; the surrounding context indicates a much smaller figure.
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Child welfare and case reviews: Commissioner Moran shared personal experience and urged AMC to support case reviews and active efforts for relative placement, pushing back against any effort to delay or abandon them. She emphasized racial disparities in child welfare and the need for stories and representation in AMC policy discussions.
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Legislative session recap: AMC highlighted successes and unfinished business from the recently ended legislative session. Successes included $90 million for county technology modernization, passed 201-0 with no Republican opposition; extension of Homelessness Prevention Aid through 2032 (Ramsey County receives $2 million per year); and stopping property tax assessment changes that would have shifted burden to residential property. Unfinished items included a $125 million one-time homestead credit refund (averaging about $200 per homestead) instead of using roughly $20 million to cover the SNAP shift, plus continued concerns over long-term services and supports cost waivers and juvenile delinquency policy.
Key Outcomes
- No formal votes or decisions were taken during the workshop.
- County officials requested that AMC provide a comprehensive multi-year strategy and data on state mandates, CPA alternatives, and regional coalition opportunities.
- AMC committed to continuing federal H.R. 1 advocacy, monitoring technology modernization funds, and keeping Ramsey County engaged in future policy discussions, including child welfare case reviews.
- Follow-up discussions are expected to continue at the AMC board level and through direct engagement between AMC staff and Ramsey County commissioners and staff.
Meeting Transcript
This morning. 730. All right. Let's get started. Welcome. Okay. Welcome to the Ramsey County Board Workshop. Today's workshop is a presentation on association of Minnesota Counties. Curtis Reminder that this board workshop is reported and is live streamed on Zoom webinar. There will be no votes taken during this workshop. But let's get started with introductions of commissioners and presenters around the table, then the rest of the room. I will start Narissa McMurfray, Commissioner District 3. Uh Kelly Miller, Commissioner District 7. Good afternoon, everyone. Matt Hildart with the Association of Minnesota Counties Deputy Director. Hi, Julie Ring, AMC Executive Director. Tara Jevinsing, Commissioner District One. Mary Joe McGuire, Commissioner District 2. Hi, my name is Hernandez, and I am supporting measuring. Oh Santa Brah, Government Relations. Andrew Greene, W Chief of Staff. Chris Deepods Planning Working Managers. Good afternoon, Lindsay Minard, Interim Planning Manager with the Policy and Administrates Division. Aha, Miller, seniorist. Great. Today we welcome Julie Ring, the Director of Association of Minnesota Counties for a check-in and conversation with the board today. We also welcome uh and are joined by Matt Hilgard, Deputy Director. Uh AMC plays an important role in bringing counties together, advocating at the legislature, and helping counties navigate the complex and evolving issues facing local government across Minnesota. Our county has a long-standing partnership with AMC. Uh Commissioner Morgoire and I both serve on the AMC Board of Directors, which provides an important opportunity to help shape statewide county priorities and strengthen collaboration across counties. Today we'll receive an update on AMC's current work, discuss the ways our county partners with AMC and have an early conversation about the recap of the more recent uh legislative session, which ended uh a day ago. So with that, I will turn it over to our presenters. Thank you so much, Commissioner McMurfree. Um really excited to be here with you today. I did put together some PowerPoint slides as really a guide sort of to keep me on task. Um for those of you that I've had the chance to work with in the past, you know that I sometimes get really excited about the content and start meandering. So this will keep me focused. Um, but I'm really hoping to have a conversation with you about the partnership between Ramsey County and AMC, um, and would encourage you to engage throughout. Um the first few slides we'll probably run through fairly quickly, but as we get into more content, certainly we can have conversation there at the end, whatever works best for all of you. So my plan today, and I know you all have copies of the slides. We have a couple other handouts um that we may refer to that were sent ahead of time, is to talk um very briefly at a high level about AMC, who we are, what we do, how we get our work done, how we've partnered with and supported Ramsey County in the past, and then ways for Ramsey County to engage in shaping AMC into the future. Um then cut off the press, you get Matt Hillgart to tell you everything we know about what just happened at the Capitol. Um at a you know fairly detailed level. The team is has taken a dive in. If you have questions, we're happy to jump into what area of content you're interested in. So before I start with the slides, um, any questions or anything else you would like me to note. All right, then we will get started in the most important spot, which is AMC's mission. But before I even read our mission to you or let you read our mission, um I have to actually start this part of the presentation with a shout out to Ramsey County. So I'm gonna talk a lot about current and future, but I'm gonna also touch a little bit on the past. And um, when I was the new AMC executive director in when I had my first full year as um executive director, former Ramsey County Commissioner Tony Carter was the association's president.
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