Becker Board sets preliminary property tax increase of 7.5 percent
News | Published on September 24, 2024 at 3:55pm EDT | Author: frazeevergas
0EDA/HRA annual contract with MMCDC renewed
By Robert Williams
Editor
The Becker County Board of Commissioners approved a preliminary increase in next year’s property tax levy of 7.5 percent, according to County Administrator Carrie Smith.
“The majority of the increases are with regards to increase and implementation of our salary grid and getting a lot of our positions up to a marketable place and that was the goal of this board,” Smith said.
Smith asked for approval of the preliminary increase with the caveat that, “As a county, we should still continue to look for budget savings and that will be a work in progress.”
The increase is just less than $2 million from the 2024 Actual Levy of $26,095.728 to the 2025 preliminary number of $28,052,561.
The county reported the following budget increases:
• Highway Department up 13 percent to $2.4 million
• Public safety up 11 percent to $11.3 million
• The general budget up 7 percent to $5.4 million
• Human Services up 3 percent to $7.4 million
• Another $1.5 million went towards debt service.
“There’s not a lot of room,” Commissioner Barry Nelson said. “We’d have to get pretty creative if we wanted to reduce this any more, significantly.”
Nelson encouraged fellow commissioners to go back to their committees and look for more potential cuts. The board has until the end of the year to reduce the levy. It cannot increase the levy once approved, but can drop the number if possible before January.
Nelson was not confident in finding many places to locate more savings. Sales tax dollars were brought up as a possibility of cutting into the building bond, but those dollars are currently budgeted for highway projects.
“If we do that, it will come out of the roads,” said Commissioner Richard Vareberg.
The levy was passed 4-0 with Chairman John Okeson absent from the meeting. The board also unanimously approved an additional levy of $245,000 in the 2025 budget for the purpose of funding housing and economic related activities of the Becker County Economic Development Authority.
In the past, EDA/HRA was deficit spending, but the 2025 increase went up significantly by $85,000 from last year’s total of $160,000, according to Nelson.
Prior to the levy conversation, the commissioners approved the county Economic Development Authority/Housing and Redevelopment Authority’s renewal of the annual management services contract with Midwest Minnesota Community Development Corporation (MMCDC) of $220,888.
Commissioner Erica Jepson noted the contract price has gotten “hefty” and questioned whether it was in the county’s best interest to continue the relationship or better to bring the duties back in-house.
“We would have to hire people to do this work,” Commissioner Richard Vareberg said. “We don’t have people to do it and there’s a lot to it.”
MMCDC provides reporting, timelines and budgeting for federally funded property, along with program administration.
“It would require staffing and that’s why we contract with them,” EDA Specialist Cody Piper said. “We feel that in cooperation with them, I think that’s a testament to the relationship we have with them. Being able to work on the contract prices and be flexible and look at all options—that’s why we’re going with the one-year contract just to make sure we’re covering all avenues and making the right resources available.”