The December 13 county board meeting began with a flurry of questions and comments from citizens unhappy with their 2012 property taxes.
Lloyd Speck had a number of comments, starting with remonstration over an increase in the airport levy from $79,000 to $95,300.
“When a budget goes up 20.63% in one year, that stands out like a red flag for me,” he said.
The additional revenue will go toward a design study for the runway extension to be paid for by the federal government witha5percent county match. Speck expressed concern over the additional maintenance costs a larger runway will incur.
Speck admonished the commissioners to find out before investing in projects whether the benefits will outweigh the costs. “We just can’t keep saying yes, yes, yes to everything,” he said. “We don’t need county commissioners if they say yes to everything.”
Speck brought up some of the capital improvement projects slated for the 1 Percent
Recreation and Infrastructure Tax, saying that the people who want those amenities should raise the funds needed for ongoing maintenance, such as through raffles and bake sales.
Speck questioned why a new information systems technician was in the budget, starting next July. Commissioner Sue Hakes explained dthat the county has numerous issues related rto communication towers, including the gcounty’s plan to get on board with the state’s ynew Allied Radio Matrix for Emergency
Response (ARMER) system allowing different governmental units to communicate with one another and the fact that Radio Systems
Coordinator Duane Ege, on contract with dthe county, will be retiring in the next couple of years and a replacement needs to get up to speed before he retires. Commissioner aBruce Martinson added that the Highway Department has difficulty communicating when the system has a lot of chatter on it, such as when the school buses are operating.
Also objectionable to Speck was raising the beginning pay rate of the paralegal/victim witness coordinator, Jeanne Smith, who was just hired in the county attorney’s office. Smith is an attorney and will bring a great deal of expertise to the job. “To me,” Speck said, “it looks like you’re not looking out for the taxpayer’s money.”
Speck took issue with the plan to replace retired Engineering Technician Bill Parish with an assistant highway engineer. “It’s just $5,000 here, $3,000 here, $7,000 here,” he said. When asked later about the decision to create the new position, Highway Engineer David Betts replied, “The Highway Department and the Cook County Board of Commissioners discussed this item and the board of commissioners determined that an assistant engineer was the best fit for this position.”
Parish retired after many years on the job and functioned at a level beyond his official position. Over the years, highway departments have been required to create more complex road plans, obtain more permits, and do more reporting than ever before. In addition, when Betts is out of the office, someone is needed to make decisions in his absence in order for work to continue without interruption.
Steve Carlson said that Cook County businesses are stressed right now and that he thinks rising taxes will keep new businesses from buying into Cedar Grove Business Park in Grand Marais. He said he would like to see expenditures reduced in numerous public arenas including county departments, the hospital, and the school. “We need to get our county government into austerity mode like our citizens are already getting into,” he said.
Carlson tempered his statements by saying, “I appreciate the efforts the county board has made to keep costs down.” Voting on the final levy
Following the strong statements from the public, the county board examined how it could reduce its 2012 levy, which must be approved before the end of the year. The proposed budget uses all but $25,000 of the $2,025,000 the county received this year as payment in lieu of taxes (PILT) for federal land in the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness (BWCAW). Auditor-Treasurer Braidy Powers said he didn’t like the fact that they would use up most of this year’s BWCAW money. “I’d like to see that as a rainy day fund,” he said.
Since setting the preliminary levy several months ago, a reduction in health insurance premiums will leave the county with close to $60,000 it hadn’t planned on. The board discussed whether to reduce the proposed levy by that amount or to keep the savings in the fund balance. Board Secretary Janet Simonen pointed out that reducing the levy by $60,000 wouldn’t affect individual property tax bills very much.
With Commissioner Jim Johnson absent, the board passed a motion to reduce the levy by $59,847, bringing the total levy to $5,989,197. This represents a 1.7 percent increase over last year’s levy. In other news…
The board voted to reimburse the hospital $130,659.79 from what is left over from the former 1 percent hospital tax for two things: a CT scanner for $21,235.88 and computerized pharmacy cabinets for $109,423.91. The county is in charge of handling the funds after the tax sunsetted.
The board passed a motion to pay about a third of the Grand Marais Municipal Pool deficit for 2010. The county budget allowed for up to $75,000 to go to the City of Grand Marais to help with the pool. The amount transferred to the city will be $68,647.91. Pool use tends to be split evenly among city residents, county residents outside the city, and visitors.
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