Seven years ago (2012), Lake County Board of Commissioners’ Chair Rich Sve wrote a spirited letter to Representative Raúl Grijalva (D-Arizona) in defense of federal funding for the three Minnesota counties that cradle the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness (BWCAW): Lake, Cook, and St. Louis counties.
Grijalva, who has served on the House Natural Resources Committee since arriving in Congress in 2003, took issue with the fact that these counties have been receiving annual funding for their 1 million acres of Boundary Waters Wilderness ever since the Thye-Blatnik Act was passed in 1948.
Commissioner Sve’s letter addressed the reality that the tax base for counties like Lake and Cook is very low, given their small populations and the overwhelming percentage of government held lands (83 percent Lake; 91 percent Cook).
Originally masterminded “to safeguard and consolidate certain areas of exceptional public value,” Thye-Blatnik funding (payment in-lieu of taxes or PILT) was intended to offset lost revenues from land that would never generate property tax dollars.
In his letter, Sve encouraged, “I hope that in the near future, we can refocus and begin to work together to help remove some of the real inequities and unintended consequences that are beginning to develop with the interplay of the existing national PILT law.”
Turned out to be wishful thinking; not unlike “stockings hung by the chimney with care, in hopes that some rosy-cheeked, plump little fellow would soon be there …”
“Supporters delude themselves if they think Congress will leave alone the Thye-Blatnik earmarks …an obvious target for budget-cutters,” warned longtime activist Becky Rom, in a December 2018 Duluth News Tribune opinion column.
While the delicate nature of political diplomacy doesn’t allow for flat-out sabotage (or at least it didn’t use to), government agencies like the U.S. Forest Service, often find ways to subvert original intentions while appearing to “play by the rules.”
Appraisals based on specious parcel selection would be one means of accomplishing this.
So here we are, seven years later, with these same three northeastern
Minnesota counties slated to lose about $2.3 million in Thye-Blatnik funds– beginning in 2020–as a result of the recent change in the evaluations.
The $1.3 million hit to Lake County amounts to about 4.5 percent of the county’s roughly $29 million budget. The $750,000 loss to Cook County amounts to a 2.9 percent reduction in the county’s overall revenue budget.
In a September, 2019, Duluth News Tribune article by Teri Cadeau, St. Louis County Commissioner Rick Goutermont intimated, “We’re trying to show the U.S. Forest Service how serious this is to our constituents in our county. If we scrunch it [the levy] down to 1-2 percent, our cries to them that it’s hurting us might fall on deaf ears. In all reality, it’s a political move.”
Goutermont argued for a 6 percent preliminary levy increase with the caveat that if the Forest Service comes back with a more favorable appraisal, that number could be decreased by the December meeting where the levy is certified.” St. Louis actually approved its 2020 levy at 6.45 percent December 17th; Minnesota’s 8th congressional district Representative Pete Stauber notified counties on December 20, that the U.S. Forest Service (USFS) agreed to conduct a new appraisal.
So, while good news did arrive–“down the chimney …with a bound”–news that a new appraisal will be undertaken and the USFS will continue to make payments based on the 2008 appraisement while the new two-year survey is undertaken, it appears the news didn’t rouse Cook County commissioners who evidently had just “settled their brains for a long winter’s nap.”
This despite the fact they had peddled a glimmer of hope, during Town Hall meetings, suggesting they would revisit the levy should “a right jolly old elf ” deliver good news.
Routinely, during the 2020 budget process, Cook County commissioners cast themselves as victims of a Governmental Grinch (oops, that’s a different rhyme) who “stole” revenue, forcing an agonizingly difficult decision when it came to setting the county’s 2020 levy.
During the September 3 Town Hall meeting held at the Community Center, Cook County Commissioner David Mills seemingly celebrated, “Personally, I am surprised at how low it is considering the reduction in PILT payments, $751,000 [annually] for the next ten years.”
The following day, during the September 4 Town Hall meeting held up the trail, it was voiced by one hopeful taxpayer, “Should the appraisal change, there is still some opportunity to make a change in the levy … right?”
“Then, in a twinkling, I heard …” Cook County Assessor Robert Thompson respond, “We are hopeful. We will see what happens.”
And Commissioner Myron Bursheim, with “A wink of his eye and a twist of his head,” stated publicly, “If it were not for the Thye-Blatnik reduction, I would recommend a lower levy.”
Board Chair Ginny Storlie suggested the board at least discuss the issue of lowering the levy if good news arrived before the holidays “drove out of sight.”
“ …the prancing and pawing of each little hoof.” (sigh)
One could reasonably conclude that those who are elected to “safeguard” the pocketbooks of their constituents would come together to publicly demonstrate their willingness to wrestle with the numbers; but no, once again, we are confronted with a flawed approach and an inferior financial result.
“And away they all flew, like the down of a thistle …”
Former Cook County Commissioner Garry Gamble is writing this ongoing column about the various ways government works, as well as other topics. At times the column is editorial in nature.
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