County lowers levy hike to 16.43%
Faribault County assessor Gertrude Paschke retiring Dec. 29
The Faribault County Board of Commissioners’ final action of the year was to pass the budget and tax levy for 2024.
During the Truth in Taxation meeting, Julie McMackins, a senior manager at Abdo, provided a quick overview of the budget and the process the County Board went through to reach their final proposals.
“On Sept. 19, the board approved a proposed 24.65 percent increase in the tax levy,” McMackins said. ‘Once that preliminary levy is set, the final proposed levy cannot go higher than that number, but it can be reduced.”
McMackins told the people attending the meeting that the commissioners held budget work sessions since the preliminary levy was set in an effort to reduce the proposed tax levy.
“The total net levy being proposed is $15,221,662, which is a 16.43 percent net increase, about $2.1 million, over the previous levy,” McMackins commented.
When the meeting was opened for public comment, most of the concerns raised by those attending the meeting were with increases in property tax values, both on residences and on farm land.
County auditor Gertrude Paschke was at the meeting and explained how property values are determined.
“The valuations are determined by sales of the previous year from Oct. 1 to Sept. 30. The requirement is for the county to be in a range of 90-105 percent of those values. We were at 94 percent so we were within that range,” Paschke explained. “When I submitted the numbers to the state, I was told by the State Board of Equalization that it wasn’t enough. They said they were working on a five-year trend line and wanted another 15 percent increase on what had already been a 20 percent increase in values.”
Paschke, with the County Board’s approval, wrote a letter to the Equalization Board asking for a one-year stay on the 15 percent increase.
“Between the pandemic and the unrest in the Twin Cities, we had people moving to Faribault County from all over and they were not afraid to pay top dollar to find a place here,” Paschke said. “It drove up prices. My thought was to wait and see if things had settled down because this increase is a burden on our farmers.”
According to Paschke, the State rejected her proposal and said if they did that for Faribault County they would have to do it for the other 86 counties.
Paschke inquired what would happen if she did not go through with the State-required 15 percent increase.
“I was told I would lose my job, the auditor could be fired and that state aid could be withheld from the county,” Paschke said.
One member of the public spoke up and said, “Thank you, I have learned more in the last 20 minutes than I have learned in the last 20 years.”
Paschke shared with the crowd she was retiring from her job effective Dec. 29.
“I have loved this job, loved serving the people and I felt called to do this job,” she explained. “You are my people and this is unconscionable what the State is doing. I have never had a state-mandated increase prior to this year.”
“It sounds like we need to vote the people up in the State Capitol out of office,” someone from the back of the room offered.
Another person at the meeting wanted to know when people would receive their updated property tax statement.
“The tax levies by the various government authorities all have to be approved by the end of the year,” McMackins replied. “The updated statements should go out by the end of March.”
With the talk on property values and taxes concluded, the discussion returned to the proposed tax levy.
“We control the spending,” commissioner Tom Loveall commented. “I am at odds with the board and the Class and Compensation study the county did which is resulting in 11 percent of the 16 percent hike in the levy.”
Chairman Bruce Anderson defended the county’s decision to conduct the Class and Comp study.
“We have not been able to keep our employees in this county. The study tells us where we are in salaries in relation to other counties. We had not had a Class and Comp study done for 25 years. We spend money training our employees and then they leave to go work somewhere else,” he said.
When the vote was taken, the resolution to set the total net levy at $15,221,662, which represents a 16.43 percent increase over the previous year, passed 4-1 with Loveall voting against the measure.