Considered one of the most important social commentators of his time, Thomas Carlyle, the feisty 19th century Scottish philosopher, believed “thought is the parent of deed.”
I agree that thought is a precursor to action; therefore, when it comes to those who govern, understanding convergent thinking focused on solving a problem becomes critical. Follow the thread or train of thought that links the various parts together–much like piecing together a puzzle–and you’ll obtain a clearer picture of the direction we are headed as a county.
The old English idiom, “a penny for your thoughts”–simply asking people to volunteer their opinions on an issue being discussed–seems appropriate here.
So what are the thoughts of our elected representatives and county administrator when it comes to setting the county’s budget? . . . decidedly, according to the county’s administrator, “the most important policy decision the board makes every year.”
From the June 20th Committee of the Whole Commissioner Meeting
Jeff Cadwell, county administrator:
“And the goal shouldn’t be what’s our percent levy increase, the goal should be how are we managing our overall budget? What are we doing? What’s effective? What’s not effective? And it should be about the expenditure budget and the revenues and the fact that the levy is the one thing that we really have control over and here’s what the number’s gonna take to solve the puzzle.
“When I was budgeting for cities, I simply laid out the revenues, the expenditures, our debt service, our enterprise funds and I took out the levy number completely and I got down to the bottom and basically, [when] you got down to the bottom you had a negative number, and that’s the number you had to turn around and put up here in your levy to solve for zero. And that’s how you solve for zero.
“We would honestly benefit, if the conversations that I heard at the Town Hall meetings is that we have to make this community more friendly to our commercial people and make it easier for people to run a business. The best thing we could do is to raise our tax rate to be equal to St. Louis County’s tax rate. That would put our commercial properties on par.”
Thought: According to the Minnesota State Demographic Center, St. Louis County’s 2017 tax rate was 66.171 percent; Cook County’s 2017 tax rate was 43.927 percent. Catapulting to St. Louis County’s rate would amount to nearly a 51 percent increase!
So how would this affect property taxes?
Glad you asked.
Consistent with the theme of “thought process,” let’s excogitate (think something out with care in order to achieve complete understanding of it).
First off, of the 22 peer group counties that were used for Cook County’s recent Compensation Study (St. Louis County was not in the peer group, for obvious reasons), only five had higher tax rates than Cook County. Only one (Mahnomen) had a tax rate that exceeded St. Louis County. In other words, of the 22 comparable counties, only one had a tax rate that exceed St. Louis County. All the other peer group counties were at least 10 percentage points under St. Louis County’s tax rate.
Secondly, one must recognize that the median value (the value at which half the assessed values are above and half are below) of a home in St. Louis County is not the same as the median value of a home in Cook County. In fact, according to the MN State Demographic Center’s 2016 figures, Cook County had the highest median home value of all the other peer group counties. Before I divulge this key bit of information, let me tell you St. Louis County’s median value home is $140,400.
Cook County’s median value home is $247,100!
Other sobering thoughts: There are only four counties, out of the state’s 87 counties, that “boast” higher median values (Hennepin, Washington, Scott and Carver), with Carver County at $287,100, the highest in the state and one of the highest in the nation. Carver County also holds the distinction of collecting the highest property tax in Minnesota.
Why is this significant?
Here’s why: If the Cook County commissioners’ thought process agrees with the recommendation made by the county administrator, that “The best thing we could do is to raise our tax rate to be equal to St. Louis County’s tax rate,” then a person living in a home valued at $247,100 would be looking at a property tax increase just short of $1,000!
Mr. Cadwell was right on when he declared, “We would honestly benefit . . .” i.e., those that like to spend other people’s money.
Here’s another piece of the emerging puzzle: The 2017 certified property tax levies for all counties compared with 2016, reflected a 3.9 percent increase. Cook County commissioners “kicked and screamed” at almost every single step of the process to get to 11.2 percent.
Back to the administrator’s comments:
“So, our budget expenditures are not out of control. On average they’ve gone up 3.1 percent annually for 28 years. And our levy is not out of control, on average it’s gone up 4.3 percent annually. So, when people in the community are saying, ‘How come we got increases more than three or four percent?’ we don’t, when we look at them over a period of time.”
Thought: Sorta like averaging out snowfall over 28 years; the huge blizzard in 1991 that dumped 37 inches–perhaps one of the largest and longest-lasting blizzards in state history–seems insignificant (read, “less disruptive”) when you average blizzards out over time. (I’m biting my tongue, at this point… I know there’s some of you who believe I never do that.)
Just imagine what the “average” levy would have been without those years when the levy was kept under control?
“When we look at the numbers (holding up a paper with figures), spending is not out of control. And the levy is not out of control.” –Jeff Cadwell, county administrator, June 20, 2017.
At this point, I’ll wrap this up with “a penny thought” from Plato: “The excessive increase of anything causes a reaction in the opposite direction.”
Here’s another appropriate “penny thought” from Plato: “Any city, however small, is in fact divided into two, one the city of the poor, the other of the rich; these are at war with one another.”
Let’s just consider these quotes “my two cents.”
Former Cook County Commissioner Garry Gamble is writing this ongoing column about the various ways government works.
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