Cook County Administrator James Joerke had some bad news for commissioners at the board’s January 12 meeting.
Joerke told commissioners an error, an honest mistake, had been made that resulted in a shortfall of $177,000 to the county’s 2021 budget.
County Assessor Bob Thompson notified Joerke that a mistake had happened when his staff was working to transpose spreadsheet data related to the valuation of 36- state assessed commercial properties. The error resulted in a miscalculation of $177,000 in tax revenues for those 36 properties, which will result in $177,000 less in taxes than the county can collect on those properties.
Joerke explained several factors contributed to the error, including short staff at the assessor’s office in August 2020 when the error occurred. There was also changes in assessments related to the reclassification of privately owned vacation rentals as commercial property which made the erroneous data harder to detect; and there was an insufficient review of the assessment data before it was sent to the auditor/treasurer’s office.
However, the biggest cause for the mistake came from using a new format sent to the assessor’s office from the Minnesota Department of Revenue.
Said Joerke “In 2020, the Minnesota Department of Revenue (DOR) provided counties with its assessed values of commercial properties in a new format that listed both the total estimated market value and equalized market value for each parcel. The reporting form that DOR used in previous years listed only the equalized market value, which is the value that counties must use in calculating the tax base. Staff in the assessor’s office transposed total estimated market value data into a spreadsheet provided to the auditor/treasurer’s office to calculate 2021 tax revenues, result- ing in a miscalculation of the revenue collected.”
After discussing the matter with Mr. Thompson, I believe the error was the result of an honest mistake and not indicative of a systemic problem. At the same time, Cook County taxpayers need to have confidence that the data we use to forecast revenues and set the budget are reliable and accurate. Mr. Thompson understands the gravity of the situation, said Mr. Joerke, adding Mr. Thompson has accepted responsibility for it and has assured me that it will not happen again.”
Assessor Thompson appeared on screen before the board and accepted full responsibility for the mistake, adding steps were being taken to ensure this type of thing wouldn’t happen again while he was the assessor. He noted that he was working to make a training manual for staff that included a video component for new workers to watch that would aid them in their work. He expected the manual to be done by June.
Cook County Auditor/ Treasurer Braidy Powers received confirmation from the Minnesota Department of Revenue on January 6, 2021, that the county has the option of reducing its levy to reflect the decrease in revenue. Administrator Joerke outlined several ways the error could be corrected.
1. The Board of Commissioners could elect to reduce the levy by a full $177,000 and use the county’s fund balance, which is currently 10,227,913, or 93 percent of annual operating costs, to make up the difference in the 2021 budget. In this scenario, a homestead property owner whose assessed value did not change from the previous year would see a 0.7 percent decrease in her/his 2021 tax bill.
2. The deficit could be addressed through a combination of the use of fund balance and spreading the remaining cost across the tax base. For example, if $100,000 of fund balance were applied to the deficit and the remaining $77,000 came from property taxes, a homestead property owner whose assessed value did not change from the previous year would pay the same amount of county tax in 2021 as they did in 2020.
The Minnesota Department of Revenue is fully aware of the situation, and the county is not subject to any penalties regardless of how the board chooses to resolve this situation, Joerke said. The auditor’s office will mail 2021 tax bills in March so the county board only had to the end of January to make a decision about how to correct the shortfall, “so that any change could be entered into the system before tax bills are sent to property owners,” noted Joerke.
Commissioner Hawkins suggested asking department heads to see if they could trim one percent from their budgets by delaying capital purchases to help reduce the burden on taxpayers. “I’m concerned we’re asking the taxpayers to fix this mistake,” she said, adding that the budget committee could be asked to take a look at the situation and come back with suggestions to help fix it.
Board Chair Mills felt the budget had been finalized and he didn’t feel comfortable asking department heads to look at making ‘hypothetical” cuts to their budgets.
While noting he hadn’t been hired during the budget process, Administrator Joerke said he had spoken with interim Administrator Rena Rogers about the process used this past year to set the budget. Rogers told him that department heads were instructed to come to the table with “budgets as flat as possible” for the coming year. “We could be opening a can of worms,” by opening the budget process again, Joerke said.
Commissioner Sullivan agreed and she called for using $100,000 from the fund balance and spread the remaining $77,00 to tax payers, which is what the board agreed to do after some more earnest debate.
In other county board action:
Anthony Boothe was hired as a Public Health and Human Services Social Worker: Substance Abuse Disorder/Licensing Case Manager.
Temporary employment agreements for Andrea Tofte (COVID-19 Health Educator), Sadie Sigford (prenatal health educator), and Maggie Farchmin (COVID-19 Health Educator) were extended beyond the original end date to June 30, 2021. Funds to pay for the work extension will come from COVID-19 relief funds sent to counties from the government.
The county 2003 Sterling plow truck (17 years old) will be replaced with a Mack Granite AF 64FR Tandem Axle Cab and Chassis Plow Truck for $265,000.
Breaking it down, the Nuss Mack Cab and Chassis cost $126,401; the Toastmaster Box, hydraulics, plows, and spreader, etc. $123,043; and the Nuss/ Mack warranty cost $5,250.
Josh Dix wrote, “Due to the high tech nature of modern-day equipment, an extended warranty is also being purchased.”
The Assessor and Auditor recommended abatement for Ruth Drake following the discovery of an error made in the land classification apportionment of Drakes’ homestead property. The abatement totaled $98 and would be a refund of taxes collected from 2019.
Land Services Director Tim Nelson said that Chris Hegg had been selected from candidates applying to serve on the Planning Commission.
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