By LeAnn R. Ralph
MENOMONIE — The Dunn County Board has approved an amended property tax levy that represents an increase of $52,010 over the property tax levy approved at the November meeting.
The increase in the property tax levy is to account for illegal property taxes assessed in the county, said Andrew Mercil, county clerk, at a special meeting of the Dunn County Board December 15.
The county board typically does not meet in December.
The amended property tax levy of $23,378,900 compares to the property tax levy of $23,326,890 approved in November.
The tax levy approved in November complied with the state’s levy limit law, and the resolution approved December 15 includes the provision that should the final calculations create a non-compliant levy regarding the state’s rules and regulations, the Dunn County Department on Administration “is authorized to make any technical corrections in the levy as deemed necessary.”
The previous county treasurer received a statement from the court that various entities in Dunn County had believed they had been overcharged on property taxes, and the court ruled in their favor in the amount of $52,000, Mercil said.
The money was paid out in January of 2020 and must be apportioned to the municipalities, he said.
The fact that the illegal taxes were not included in the tax levy approved in November was caught by the current treasurer and was due to a communication from the previous treasurer that had not been shared with the staff, he said.
The original resolution also contained $270 in special charges that were actually state special charges, which is information provided to the county clerk’s office that is then relayed to the county’s chief financial officer. The $270 was for a drainage district, so the resolution must be modified to reflect that, Mercil said.
Ann Vogl, county board supervisor from Menomonie, pointed out that in one section of the resolution, the amount was listed as $52,280 and that in another section the amount was listed as $52,329.
Should those two amounts be the same? she asked.
Nick Lange, Dunn County corporation counsel, said he was not sure those numbers should be the same and started to search for the previous resolution.
Paul Miller, county manager, said it could be acknowledged as a “scrivener’s error” and the resolution would be corrected so that the Dunn County board chair would be signing the correct version.
Mercil pointed out that the tax levy resolution approved in November had included $48.79 in illegal taxes that had been rounded up to $49.
The $49 accounts for the difference between $52,280 and $52,329, he said.
The Dunn County Board unanimously approved setting a property tax levy of $23,378,900.
