Taxes committee considers creating property tax task force

It’s a question that elected officials at every level of government hear when door knocking on the campaign trail.

“Why are my property taxes going up so much?”

If the campaigner is a member of the Legislature, the answer they provide can be an unsatisfying one, for property tax levies are determined at the county, municipal and school district levels.

Rep. Greg Davids (R-Preston) would like to be able to address those questions armed with more information.

So he’s sponsoring HF3396, to create an eight-member property tax task force entrusted with investigating causes of property tax increases across counties, school districts, cities and towns. The task force would be charged to present options that could increase transparency around local government budgets by next January.

On Thursday, the House Taxes Committee laid the bill over for possible omnibus bill inclusion.

Who would be on this task force? According to HF3396, it would include:

• two state representatives;
• two state senators;
• the revenue commissioner;
• one county commissioner;
• one mayor; and
• one school board member.

But that was just one element of a larger discussion around that basic question of rising taxes at the county level.

Nathan Jesson, executive director of the Minnesota Inter-County Association, said, on average, 85% of a county’s budget comes from property taxes, adding that county tax levy increases over the past year have been the largest in 25 years, with an average increase statewide of 7.6%.

He also noted a county program aid the state provides has remained flat in recent decades while the number of mandates on what a county must provide its residents has increased.

Matthew Hilgart, director of government relations for the Association of Minnesota Counties, warned that he sees the historic increases in county tax levies growing this year, thanks in part to new federal policies that will shift more of the administrative costs, workloads and funding of benefits to the county level in the areas of Medical Assistance and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program.

Even before the coming changes, Hilgart said, Minnesota already administers SNAP more at the county level than any other state.