Hennepin County Commissioner Jan Callison
Our program on April 16th was a presentation by Jan Callison, our Hennepin County Commissioner. She is experienced in local government having served on the council in Minnetonka, as well as being mayor of that city.
She began her talk with a number of questions about Hennepin County. Most of the people in the area don’t know very much about the county and what it does. She pointed out that it is a county of diversity with a wide range of ethnic groups and a wide range of activities from farming to transistor manufacture. It contains the largest population, and is second only to the state in size of budget.
25% of the county budget is spent on human services, and 14% on police and safety. The county’s revenue comes from various sources, but 36% of the budget is covered by the property tax.