Greetings from Le Sueur County
With summer winding down and the transition of seasons, Fall marks the time where we as County government need to assemble, discuss and approve a budget for the new year and decide how much property tax needs to be collected to fund operations.
The Board of Commissioners spent two days in August meeting with all county departments to review budget requests. The Board will hold one additional work session and then set the preliminary levy on September 17, with the final levy being set on December 3.
The preliminary levy amount is used to generate Truth in Taxation notices that are sent to all property owners in November. This notice explains how property taxes are determined and outlines values, property classifications, tax amounts for current year and proposed estimated taxes for the coming year.
The preliminary levy sets a high-water mark the County is allowed to levy for the coming year, but historically, the Board of Commissioners has worked to lower the levy between the preliminary and final levies, mainly by identifying non-reoccurring costs that could be paid for with available reserves.
Budgets are still being worked on, but our goal is to set the preliminary levy in the 7 percent range to give the Board budget room to work with between now and December. The main variable in budgeting for 2025 will be personnel costs, as all bargaining unit contracts expire at the end of the year.
From a historical perspective, 2020-2024 final county levies have been 9, 4, 4, 4.8, 5.2 and 4.9 percent respectively.
In the last several years, we have had citizens appear at levy public meetings to dispute the value of their property and levels of taxation. As a reminder, valuation appeals are addressed through separate local or county Board of Appeal and Equalization meetings that occur earlier in the year. Also, the County Board has control only over the county budget and levy, with townships, cities, and school districts independently setting their own budgets and levy amounts, and the County being responsible for collecting and dispersing the amounts for all government jurisdictions.
As I mentioned in my June column, the county will add $42.5 million to its tax base in 2025 from new construction, and the total county estimated market value is up 5.6 percent to $6.5 billion. Ag land value increases continue to outpace residential value increases, with average residential value growing around 3 percent, and agricultural land increasing an average of 9 percent. It is still too early to tell if a tax shift will occur in 2025 away from residential onto agricultural land, as there are new eligible credits and exclusions that will be implemented for the 2025 tax year.
In flood recovery news, County personnel have been meeting with FEMA representatives to work through monetary reimbursement of county-related expenses due to flood response. The main county costs were related to sandbagging operations and debris disposal. Additionally, our County Assessor’s staff have been busy making site visits to many flood damaged properties to determine eligibility for 2nd half property tax abatement. As a reminder, there is no other direct individual county assistance available for flooding, so if you have been impacted by flooding, you need to make an appointment to meet with FEMA representatives who are still present in Waterville. It is uncertain how long the FEMA Disaster Recovery Center will remain open at the site, but as of the latest report, they have worked with 166 residents and delivered over $1 million in assistance.