News

County holds public meeting

By Scott Wagar

09/30/2014

The Bottineau County Commissioners conducted its public meeting to a full house on Sept. 24 to obtain the tax payers’ opinions on the county’s 2015 budget which saw a decrease in mills but increase in its budget from an increase in value of the mill.  

According to Lisa Herbel, auditor of Bottineau County, a taxing district must hold a hearing if a property tax levy is a greater number of mills than the zero increase number of mills.

Technically, in Bottineau County, the total budget from 2014 to 2015 increased ($4,128,759 to $4,441,448), but the mill levy decreased from 2014; however, the value of the mill increased, causing the total budget to increase.   

Commissioner Dan Marquardt started the meeting and turned it over to County Auditor Herbel to give the general reasons as to why the 2015 budget increased and what tax payers can expect.

They included:

● If individuals’ valuations on their property stayed the same, or in the city of Bottineau with the revaluation done by Vanguard happened to decrease, individuals’ taxes with the county would actually decrease because the mill levy (not the value of the mill) went down. You would see an increase if your evaluation increased.

● Ag land had an across the board county increase of 12 percent, which was done at the county level.

● If the 2015 county budget, with its present financial numbers, was approved in October, a $100,000 house would have an increase of approximately $9 per year.

● The 12 percent legislature tax relief that was on your tax statement last year is still in affect this year. When all the taxes are calculated, your consolidated tax amount, will still be reduced 12 percent.

● The primary reason why the county budget increased $312,000 has to do with water issues in Bottineau County. There was an additional $100,000 amount added to the budget for the Souris Basin Joint Water Board. An additional $72,000 went to all water boards due to increased water problems.

● General operating expenses increased cost and the budget.

● Bottineau County’s human resource consultant compared the county’s wages to other like counties and discovered that some positions in the county had fallen behind in the last three years. (Two examples given were the Sheriff’s department and road department, which will receive an increase.)

● The County’s health insurance levy also increased as the county’s healthcare insurance is going up by 14 percent next year, which the county has no control over.

● The library levy increased due to the fact that it is one of the levies that is tied to state funding, and if we don’t levy a certain amount we lose state funding. So, the county is forced to raise that levy, raise that budget or lose state funding. (There are additional entities tied to state funding. For a full list of the entities contact Herbel)

● The other part that raises the county’s budget is the value of the mill levy increasing.

● The mill levy last year was valued at $49,000, this year it is at $55,000. Automatically that is a $6,000 increase on the funds that are tied to state funding. An example, the farm to market levy is 10 mills, if the county doesn’t levy 10 mills, we will lose state and federal funding. So that is automatic increase of $60,000 to the budget. But, if we don’t budget that amount we lose state and federal funding. The county does not want to leave state funding on the table.

From Herbel, the meeting was open to public comments. Bottineau attorney, Michael McIntee, spoke during the open forum and primarily spoke about Souris Basin Joint Water Board’s (SBJWB) request for $100,000 to assist with water issues in Bottineau County. The $100,000 request has been made by the SBJWB to a variety of counties in the area, but McIntee provided documentation that showed Renville and McHenry counties turned down the SBJWB’s request and left it out of their county budgets.

McIntee also handed over documentation which showed that none of the counties involved with SBJWB’s request would receive any work on their water projects with the exception of Ward County where a number of planned projects will take place in Minot concerning water issues.

McIntee made the request that the $100,000 be removed from the county budget since its tax payers wouldn’t receive anything back for the money that they will have to provide.

Marquardt stated that Bottineau County would receive work on water dams in the county which are currently holding water back from flowing north into Canada, instead of flooding fields.

Marquardt also added the county has requested quarterly reports from the SBJWB about the work being conducted, and if the work is not being completed the SBJWB will not receive payments from the $100,000. Payments are to be made quarterly after a progress report has been received.

Outside of some issues on the water in the county, no other individuals in the public forum made comments.

“The 2015 preliminary budget was left as distributed,” Herbel said.  “The final reading will be held on Oct. 7, 2014, at the county commissioner meeting at 10 a.m,” Herbel said.

The public meeting held on Wednesday evening was only for the county budget. The city of Bottineau, the Bottineau School District and the Bottineau Park Board will hold their own hearings during the month of October.