Bruce Martinson
In addition to dealing with issues that come up locally, Cook County commissioners go to bat outside the county on behalf of this community. At the May 29, 2009 county board meeting, Commissioner Bruce Martinson updated the board on his work to keep property taxes low in the face of proposals at the state level to raise Cook County’s tax rates.
“Right now, we have the lowest tax rate in the state,” Martinson said in a June 5 phone interview. Some state legislators are proposing a couple of ways to collect more money from the counties paying the least. The first is related to “maintenance of effort” (MOE), or what counties are required to spend on services the state requires them to provide. That amount, which was determined by the amounts spent during one particular “sample” year, is different for each county and does not reflect the fluctuations in a small county’s needs from year to year.
According to Martinson, some legislators would like to see counties that pay the least for maintenance of effort help pay maintenance of effort costs for counties that have higher MOE costs. How that formula would be determined has not been outlined, however.
“We’re being very efficient,” Martinson said, “but we’re being penalized for it.”
Martinson said both the county board and the Minnesota Association of Counties support the position that the maintenance of effort requirements should more accurately reflect the needs of individual counties and that those counties should have input into what the requirements are.
Martinson said he heard State Representative Tom Rukavina of Virginia say at an IRRRB meeting that Cook County has such a low tax rate, it should be removed from the taconite relief district.
While property taxes are paid to the Cook County auditortreasurer, not all of the money goes into county coffers – the state gets a share. Another method that has been proposed to bring more tax money to the state from Cook County would be to simply increase the amount of money that people pay to the state through their property taxes.
“…We’ve been getting beaten up,” Martinson said, because Cook County’s property taxes are considered low in comparison with other counties. Martinson’s contention, however, is that while the rate may seem low per parcel, acre, or lot, the square footage of homes on Cook County properties may be significantly smaller than the square footage of homes in other counties. When the square footage of the homes in Cook County is considered, people whose main residence is here may be paying as much or more than others around the state. At the same time, Cook County’s median household income is low, Martinson said.
One problem in proving Martinson’s theory is that the right statistics are not available. MJ Hedstrom in State Senator Tom Bakk’s office is looking at coming up with a way to fairly determine the value of “the average Joe’s” property, Martinson said. Statistics are available on the median property tax on a homesteaded residential home by region, but not by county, and Martinson is working with Hedstrom to get the state to compile those statistics by county.
” Martinson believes that factoring in what people earn and the size of their houses with the amounts they pay in property taxes on homesteaded properties will show that Cook County residents are paying their fair share.
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