As a member of the “for-thekids” steering committee for the proposed operating levy, I have listened to several taxpayers express distrust of the current Kimball school district because of a much greater than expected increase in taxes after the high school bond referendum was passed in 2000. A couple of us on the committee set out to determine whether this perception was true. The short answer is “No.” During 2001, the year following the bond approval, Stearns County school district taxes went up $155 per year on a $100,000 residential property, even less than the predicted amount of $197. The substantial increase some taxpayers saw after the bond passed was not due to the bond referendum. Assessors in both counties assured me that it is very difficult to break out why increases occurred – assessed values of individual properties may have increased that year and inflated the amount a single home was taxed (a 10 percent increase per year has been the average since about 2000). Or local city, township, county or state taxes may have increased. Close to that time, the state decided that seasonal cabins do not have to pay taxes for local school levies, so this would have shifted more school taxes to the remaining properties. Also around that time, the state changed the way tax capacities were calculated, resulting in properties of lesser value having a higher overall property tax rate. But large, unpredicted increases were not due to the bond referendum. In fact, in 2002, the school district taxes decreased $329 from 2001 values on a $100,000 residential property. This was due to the state reduction of $707,240 in our school district’s debt service excess (the 5 percent-extra fund the state requires to be tacked on to any school bond). I came to these conclusions after extensive research. I pulled archived school district information on estimated 2001 tax increases due to the bond. I spoke to school board members present when the bond was passed. I spoke to individuals in both Meeker and Stearns County Assessor’s offices, and received yearly tax information on actual properties in the city of Kimball from 1997-2005. From the Stearns County Auditor’s office I received school tax information from 1997-2006 for a $100,000 residence, a $200,000 commercial property, and both homestead and non-homestead ag property. Finally, the school’s financial manager used a state Web site to prepare a spreadsheet listing the values of all levies, bonds, etc. that were used to determine the actual school taxes to be paid from 1996-97 through 2005-06. All the values showed close correlation. Actually, if we compare the amount of taxes on any of the types of properties listed above, we can see that school-related property taxes have all been trending downward since 1997, if the value of the property is held steady. This is (in part) because new construction and new commercial property spread out the tax burden over more people and, in general, each individual is charged less. Also, new construction tends to be assessed at higher values, and current properties of lesser value will pay comparatively fewer taxes than properties of greater value. However, there is even more interesting history found during my research: In February 2000, the $10 million bond referendum was passed for high school renovation and addition. In April 2000 the state informed our school that a new law had been passed which required all renovations to have their ventilation systems brought up to code–and the school was left scrambling to find another $620,000 to pay for the new ventilation. In 2001, the grand total of money to come from the district taxpayers spiked to $1.6 million (up from $1.1 million the year before), mostly due to the operating levy first approved in 1999 and the first increases seen due to the bond. In 2002 the levy first approved in1999 was taken away by the state and paid through other state sources. This was important, because the Health and Safety levy used to fund the ventilation system renovation added nearly $510,000 to levy amounts that year. Placing this on top of the nearly $1.2 million bond money (which includes the grade school built in the late 80’s as well as the high school bond), this made for a total of $1.73 million, which the state reduced by $707,240 (in excess debt service, as mentioned above), resulting in only $1.03 million, a number less than 1997 values. In summary, I ask those of you who felt that your taxes increased over and above predicted amounts in 2001 to take another look at the research. I believe you can see for yourself that the school portion of your taxes was not to blame. I encourage you to bring any questions you might have concerning the school taxes and the proposed operating levy to Dr. Scott Thielman’s next presentation in the school cafetorium at 7 p.m. on Tuesday, Nov. 1, 2005. Thank you, Heidi Sorensen
