it is 6:00 we will have our goody County 2025 truth and Taxation okay I'll start great um as you know we uh the county is required to hold a public hearing each year to um take comments or questions about the proposed budget for next year
so we just have a short presentation for you and then um you can turn it over for public comment you um just to review the 2025 budget development timeline back in March property tax statements were mailed out August
through November there were various budget meetings with departments Administration the county Bo board held um budget workshops in September the proposed budget was announced and the preliminary Levy was set in November the proposed
property tax notices were mailed and now we're in December for the public discussion period and the board will be asked to approve the final budget at the next meeting in December so the next slide on here uh really shows the timeline of the overall
assessment and Taxation process so for the 2025 budget the taxes that will be paid and be collected by the county uh for that year the work that actually went into the valuation and classification that was all done towards the tail end of 2022 and during uh 2023
as well all the work that um was you know performing those sales uh confirmation calls uh doing the quintile work as well as uh viewing new construction that all actually happened in 2023 to set the valuation date on
January 2nd 2024 um so that's that's Minnesota's overall process there so uh so just as a reminder when we're paying our 2025 taxes it's really based off of a value that was established two years prior and then another thing that's
important to note here uh obviously tonight we're talking about the County's overall budget the any kind of valuation concerns and questions the time to address those uh questions would have been earlier this year the um the board the county had its uh County Board of
appeal meeting on June 18th this year that was the last day where we really could have adjusted any Valu valuation or or classification questions okay when we look at the overall proposed budget and Levy back in September when the board established the
preliminary Levy the budget was 94 mil 67600 with a levy request of 45 million 725 455 now as we noted uh numerous budget workshops have taken place um we have more defined numbers and where we're at
today the proposed budget is 93 million 616 249 with a levy uh request of 45 million 35975 this is an increase of just over 1.5 million or 3.49 over the approved
2024 Levy however it is a reduction from the preliminary Levy of $ 49,4 180 when we look at that overall budget of 993 mil 616 249 just over half goes to pay for
personel Services 26% goes for services and charges 8% goes to public assistance 3% goes for supplies and materials other miscellaneous expenses 2% goes for
transfers in future fund balance and debt and 5% goes to Capital when we take a look at the breakdown of the levy those funds that are collected 53% of the levy goes to pay for the general fund the general
fund is made up of departments such as Administration finance and taxpayer services our land offices our vets office and our Public Safety offices 20% goes to Health and Human Services 14% to Public Works 8% to
Capital 4% to debt 1% to waste management and under 1% for Eda and the next slide here is the capital plan that we have reviewed um several times just a breakdown that the total capital expenditure at this point
is 4.6 million and of that amount the levy amount would be 3.7 um and the biggest thing here is most of the cost is associated with buildings and maintaining our
vehicles the next slide just gives you an idea of the expenditures of the capital plan for the next 5 years all right so the next slide here is to uh once again show the levy amount
that 45.3 million the overall dollar increase that we mentioned um but really is to to show what the county tax rate is as of this time so um you can see in 2024 the county tax rate was the 42.2 two% for
pay 25 we're now looking at 40.799726 County's tax rate history um so you can see uh this data goes back to 2002 so you can see as time's gone on our tax rate has uh actually decreased uh substantially um special note you can
see in 2022 we're at 40 a little over 47% and that rate has gone down since then um primarily that's due to valuation increases um that we've seen in real estate prices but nonetheless the tax rate has gone down significantly
over the past past uh several years uh there is well you can see the 10year average 44.4 one% so we are sing uh pretty good on a actual tax rate um side there so the next slide here um there's
it's kind of messy there's a lot showing uh here but you can see the actual Levy dollar amount for 2021 through 2025 uh you can see that is going up and to the right uh we started out at uh 37
m899 109 and now for pay 2025 we're at 45,3 5,975 and then overlaid on top of that you can see those rates as well dropping down to the 4.79 2% uh couple comments observations on
this as well is as we noted the current year-over-year increase in the levy is sitting at under three and a half percent um went back and did some math and some checking on this calculated out the 5-year compound annual growth rate of
the levy is actually 4.21% so our year-over-year increase is less than what we've increased at historically going back 5 years additionally looked at uh some CPI numbers for our most comparable uh region there you can see the same
mathematical calculation the compound annual growth rate uh is at 4.13% inflation so our year-over-year increase um is both under our 5-year uh average growth rate in the levy as well as it's
less than the average increase in inflation figures as well so this next slide is to illustrate what the median market value of a personal residents what they can expect in their change in County specific taxes uh property taxes uh just want to note
here that we use when we're using this calculation we use the median market value we don't use the average market value the average market value can be swayed by if you have a significant number of really high valued Properties or a significant number of low valued properties the median is the actual
middle value property in the entire County um so there you can see um for 2024 that median market value is 259,000 for pay 25 it's 287,000 um and then taking carrying that calculation down you can see the market
value exclusion for 2025 is 20,700 one thing to note when looking at this typically when your value increases your market value exclusion also decreases the reason why it increased
this year is because the legislature changed the calculation for it this is a one-time essentially a one-time benefit we're getting it this year the benefit will continue on but this the really significant change is going to be year-over-year this year where they expanded the benefit of that exclusion
so that's why that number went went to up um you can see calculating the formula down uh the TA we get the taxable market value of 266,000 multiply that by the residential class rate of 1% we get net tax capacity
of the $2,669 multiply that by the local tax rate and we get an estimated net tax of 1,8 $9 or year-over-year increase of $58 uh a little more context to this you
can see that estimated increase the $58 that's a 5.6% increase in tax that this um that this taxpayer would pay compare that to the valuation increase
that 259 to 287 that's on an increase of 11% there so um their taxes are going up about 5.6% but they're Valu went up significantly more than that so that's a uh just a function
of us um essentially keeping our our Levy increase less than three and a half or less than three and a half per. another note I just wanted to make on here um this is the median market value so another thing to keep in mind
here is any new construction that's going up for the most part the value on a new construction is going to be higher than our median market value typically when people are building a new home that new home's value is going to be higher than that $287,000 so that number is increasing it
could be increasing based on multiple factors just the in general valuation of properties are going up but also new properties are also getting built at higher values so this 11% increase is not representative of all taxpayers
within the county then something I wanted to include here um that we haven't really discussed in um these previous uh um TNT public hearings but there's multiple different reasons why your property taxes could actually change um this is a nice list that's provided by both AMC and the
league of Minnesota cities uh we can run through these really quickly um market value of your property may change one thing to keep in mind here is that the Department of Revenue can change the value values um that the assessor comes up with if uh the County's values aren't keeping up
with the actual sales data uh another thing there is market value of other property in your taxing district may change so if your neighbor's property goes value goes up yours goes down that's going to shift that tax burden amongst taxpayers third one on here State Legislature may change a portion of the
tax uh Base by different classes of property um state of Minnesota has one of the most complicated property tax systems in the nation um um and uh those class rates as I said for residential Homestead Property if it's less than $500,000 of value that class rate is 1%
if you're above $500,000 of value you're at 1.25% so the state sets those class rates and they can change them changing it will change the uh how the taxes are allocated the next point on here is the state general tax may change this is a
TA tax that's assessed uh on commercial industrial and seasonal recreational residential only um this one doesn't impact the the county budget specifically but City and Township budget and Levy may change same thing School District budget and Levy may change then ours there obviously the
county budget and Levy may change as you're all aware the vast majority of the county expenditures are directly related to services that we are required to fulfill by state and federal mandates eth on the list here is uh special taxing districts budget ly may
change examples of this year that we have in the county or SRA um special assessments can be added to a taxpayers uh bill as well as well as voters may have approved a referendum uh beyond that federal and state mandates may have changed this
happens frequently uh where legislature passes new laws and they don't provide funding for those um additionally Aid and other revenue from state and federal governments may have changed and then lastly on here other State Law changes May adjust the tax
base so then obviously this meeting is really it's about the levy and the budget that's what we're here to discuss but I have another two slides on here that I think are really important to present for context purposes so this slide uh illustrates the tax capacity TR
Trends how they've changed over the last 10 years so the tax capacity is how the levy gets allocated amongst all the properties throughout the county tax capacity is more than just your valuation it's your valuation multiplied by your class rate so as you can see
here the uh tax capacity obviously goes up and the right as you'd expect values increase over time um and then within those colors uh and the table you can see the specific classification so you can see agriculture has kind of
increased increased slightly the big change there um obviously is is between 2022 and 2023 as I previously discussed the values or the taxes payable in 2023 that's related to work that was done in
2021 when uh we were experiencing some high inflation in 2122 so that's really why this tax capacity increased in that year but there it it really shows how the residential tax capacity the residential values have increased significantly
since 2022 then the next slide on here I feel is very important uh because this shows which classifications of property are paying the most in taxes and how that allocation has changed over the
years so down at the bottom that's railroad property goodu County doesn't have a whole lot of railroad property uh above that's personal property that hasn't really changed all that much above that uh is commercial industrial you can see that's been relatively flat
uh between 24 and 25 it's gone up it's ticked up slightly um the next one there that is utility property so there you can see in 2016 they're at about 24% goes up through 2018 then we start taking a
significant decrease in the County's tax capacity percentage so now in 2025 we're sitting probably about 16 16.5% overall overall tax cap capacity so obviously we uh house a
large uh Power Plant here that's where the majority of that comes from then you can see agriculture that one has um kind of gone down and a little bit and then gone back up but the the other really big change here uh as I previously mentioned has been
residential we start out in 2016 we're at about 36% of uh tax capacities made up by residential now due to valuation increases we're near 45% um so that kind of directly
correlates with the decrease in the valuation of the utility properties within the county so that's just the the shifting of the tax burden amongst the taxpayers and the next slide is just contact information for if anybody would have any comments questions uh to send
our way so we could help them out as well as information uh as far as property tax refunds any questions or comments from the board go ahead Linda on one of your slides you said
that the majority of where the taxes go are mandated by the state can you give me any kind of a percentage on that you said the majority so I was just
wondering if you can give me any kind of a percentage on that well I don't know what the percentage would be but um sheriff's office roads and bridges you know just general government expenditures uh Health and Human Services everything that we do almost everything that we do it's it's mandated
we provide mandated Services the surveyor office providing the surveyor um duties within the county it's um that we're not in the business of just coming up with additional Services generally the reason I was
asking is the last couple of weeks I've gotten an earful about taxes in the county and one of the comments was strongly well do less and yet what you're saying on here is that the majority is are things that are mandated
by the state that Counties have to do and so that's kind of I was looking for is a way to go back and be able to word it in a way that makes sense to another taxpayer did they have suggestions on
what to do less did they not want a service no the comment the comment was that just start cutting things and eventually the people will start calling you up and saying no don't cut that that you'd go by complaint
I I think pretty much everything but extension and some of the vet services stuff is mandated um but to some extent how we do these things you know different counties do them differently so we're mandated to do them but we have some leeway in terms
of how we do that is is that pretty accurate Scot efficiency yeah that's that's very accurate so basically extension is not mandated um although we have like the second largest program in the state so it probably wouldn't be very popular to got that right um and then it's required
to have a veteran service officer but what exactly that person does in the level that you serve the veterans uh is up to the county board but again that that's not a very popular one to cut right um the other things ironically uh you don't have to plow
your roads and you um um what's what's the other one that's really ironic you don't have to plow your roads you don't have to have a patrol yeah that's right and you don't have to patrol your roads but you do have to patrol your Waters so you don't have to patrol roads but you have to patrol Waters um now what level
you do that too that's a County Board service level decision um but usually people want their roads plowed and they want to keep the public safe as well correct go ahead Andrea I'll just add excuse me our outside agencies as well are are some of the
things that um are not mandated although a lot of the services that they provide if they don't do it then it would fall back such as the Humane Society would fall back to the sheriff um the Historical Society the recordkeeping would fall back to Lucas I believe um
so but the funding level um you know that's something that you decide sure and the library there's certain level required to do but we do some above and beyond that and andless I mean I understand the same with several nonprofits that if the nonprofits Wen in
existence and we didn't help support them to some degree then many of those Services could also fall back on the county which would be much more expensive than the way the nonprofits function thank you very much on the one
chart there it showed from 2022 it started to go down these last three or four years I thought that was just when I became County Commissioner oh maybe not I'm going to show that to Barney though I would I
would I think I would I think that you know the thing that the the is important for the public to remember is um the valuation of houses we have we're not the driver of that it's the
public buying houses the County's not in the business of buying farmland or buying houses or buying businesses what they sell for is what they sell for and that's going to dictate where that line goes um and the do has got their pulse on that and they've increased the
they've increased the swiftness of them to get that information from when we start valuing houses the a minute we start changing stuff it goes right to the state and they're keeping track of it and saying
you're not going up fast enough or you're not doing this fast enough or you're not doing that fast enough so I think we're as much as we like to think we get to have some decision around the value of a property really the Department of Revenue is telling us exactly where it
has to go so it's really hard for us to to change it to um slow that rate down and the public keeps buying houses and sellers set the price of a house so kind of the way it
goes thank you for I really appreciate how you put this together it's really explains an awful lot any other questions do you know if questions from the floor would you like any comments
or up to the microphone yeah please you just state your name and your your name and your address would be great my name is Danny Hy I live in h Redwing at on Neil Street um what
drives the um Homestead uh number so that's a it's a formula that's in statute so your lawmakers have set that so for pay 20 County or state the
state sets the formula okay so the way it works is as the value of your house goes up that exclusion will decrease but for pay 2025 they expanded it um they they increased the benefit of that that's what I that's what I noticed and
that's why I asked yeah yep okay that's it thank you thanks that's a one time well it's it's a a onetime increase in the benefit that benefit will stay now unless legislation changes it they
they really what they did was they expanded the the valuation to a higher level which changed all the lower levels so you get more exclusion as you're going up I think it went from 480
something to 518 5 it capped out the old cap um was 43,800 and it went up to 500 117 200 so they also did similar with Eggland which you had a cap around 1.7
1.8 million and now it's like 3.2 million it's increasing to three and a half I think is what it is yeah and a little bit of that quite frankly is going to shift a little bit of taxes onto business and away from away from
homestead or residential Homestead and egg hom stad and it will shift it towards business 18% they didn't get they didn't get any any relief on the business side so my little building in town
pay we have any other questions I just wondered if you thought goodu County's uh graph as far as tax rate would pretty well mirror the state average I I would I would think it'd be pretty close close but yeah I I don't know that I I could answer that
cuz there's a lot of factors that go into it obviously values have gone up but other Counties have different situations of what's going on in their their County so and um you know if if a county puts up uh a significant building project then that could change the levies also so
remote areas actually the tax rate might not or excuse me the tax capacity might not go up very much because homes might not be increasing in value yeah but it's uh the tax capacity it's the valuation it's the classification of all Parcels out there I know there are counties out there
which are primarily egg only in egg values had had skyrocketed and if they don't have many homes or businesses then it's it's going to be similar where the value is going to go up but those people may not be able to to pay increased taxes so right I understand
that anything else I have one more would it be fair to say that as well EXL energy is a very large utility in the area is it would it be accurate to say that as their tax demand goes down that the
residential one's going to go up yes if whenever xl's property tax bill goes down everybody else in the County's tax bills absolutely goes up and every year they argue very diligently about wanting to
deep value they appeal their valuation every year um and that's why I thought it was important to include this last slide here that shows the shifting of the tax burden amongst the classifications you can see clearly that um you know their value this is all utilities within the
county um the utility uh tax capacity is increased up through 2018 from then on it's it's been going down generally every year and that has shifted the tax base to other taxpayers thank you but that's that's not really that their valuation went down as
much as it was that other valuations went up and theirs stayed more flat I'd say It's a combination of both a little bit of both but not it's not totally related to their valuation going down other values go up and their values if
they go down yes it'll that'll help sh it accentuates it ipating any change with that for 26 or we don't know or how long do that take to as far as tax rates yeah or for EXL I
mean are they going to get another break or I I couldn't tell you at this point um they're going to take the state to Tex to challenge the state's valuation yeah and I I think we we lobby but so do
they so yeah and I think probably they have way more lobbyists than we do you can yeah I think so all right anything else thank you very much thank you for online whoever was listening thank
you I don't have to call that