Some of us can remember the days when banks paid rates high enough on savings accounts so that, with compounded interest, you could double your money in 10 or 12 years. Nowadays you’re lucky to receive a half-percent interest, assuming you’re fortunate enough to have savings…many people live day to day with constant credit card debt and loan payments.
The county’s recent proposal of levying 15 percent in 2018, 14 percent in 2019 and 13 percent in 2020 will have a similar compounding effect on property tax. The 11.1 percent levied for 2017 will be “compounded” by the proposed 15 percent levy in 2018. Subsequent levies in 2019 (14 percent) and 2020 (13 percent) will have a compounding effect on all previous levy amounts in turn. The cumulative effect to what your property tax was in 2016 will become a 64 percent increase by the time the 13 percent levy for 2020 is in place.
Will your property tax be 64 percent higher in 2020 than it was in 2016? It may actually be more if your property value increases or you make taxable improvements.
This “distributed” 15 percent-14 percent-13 percent levy proposal is intended to bring future levies down into a more constant 5-6 percent annual level. With the multitude of spending and bonding gambits on their strategic planning agenda, can we count on our “build-more/hire-more” county administration to reduce property tax levies to a more reasonable level after 2020?
Keep in mind that this is a proposal, not a promise. The proposal is being “sold” to us by an elected county board and a county administrator that may or may not be around after 2020 to follow through on this scheme. The proposed levies will in large part be used to cover the effects of poor planning by previous county officials and to fund the “strategic planning” speculations presently being contrived by our current county administration.
Just because it’s being sold doesn’t mean you should buy it…you will undoubtedly be paying with interest.
Bob LaMettry
Grand Marais
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