By LeAnn R. Ralph
MENOMONIE — The Dunn County Board has approved an expense budget of $90.8 million for 2022 and a total property tax levy of $23.3 million.
Approving the budget and the tax levy are the last two steps in the 10-month budget process, said Keith Strey, Dunn County’s chief financial officer, at the Dunn County Board’s November 9 meeting.
The budget presented to the county board for approval is the same budget that was presented in the published notice about the 2022 budget, he said.
Mike Kneer, county board supervisor from Menomonie, asked if the budget is still using $3 million in American Recovery Plan Act (ARPA) funds and still using $3 million in borrowing without cutting anything else from the expenses.
The budget is using $3 million in borrowing and $4 million in ARPA funds for the highway department, and the county has not cut any services for county residents, said David Bartlett, county board supervisor from Boyceville and chair of the Dunn County Board.
The majority of the $3 million in borrowing is also going the highway department, he noted.
Kneer requested a roll call vote on the budget, which includes $90,822,314 in revenue and $90,787,314 in expenditures.
The Dunn County Board approved the 2022 budget on a vote of 25 “yes” to three “no.”
Voting against the motion were Kneer, Bartlett and Steve Jenson, county board supervisor from Elk Mound.
Revenue loss
The total tax levy of $23,326,890 is in compliance with the state’s levy limit law, Strey said.
Larry Bjork, county board supervisor from Menomonie, asked how the levy limit was related to growth in county.
How much has the levy increased because of growth? Bjork asked.
Dunn County has had an increase in equalized value of 6.69 percent, Strey said.
Unfortunately, because of the state’s levy limit law, Dunn County can only increase the levy by less than 1 percent, which amounts to just over $200,000. The increase does not cover Dunn County’s basic cost increases, he said.
That means 5.76 percent of the property value growth could not be claimed for revenue, Strey said.
“This has been going on for 15 years,” he said.
The baseline for the levy sits stagnant, but the county can have “great economic development and great growth,” he said.
“That’s the effect of the levy limit law,” Strey said.
Because the county cannot capture the property taxes from the increased equalized value, that amounts to a revenue loss for the 2022 budget of $1.1 million, he said.
Using the tax levy to complete capital improvement projects “is not an option,” Strey said.
If the county could have captured the tax revenue from the increase in equalized value, Dunn County could reduce borrowing for capital improvements by $1.1 million, he said.
If you multiply the revenue loss by the number of years the levy limit law has been in place, that amounts to quite a lot of money, although the equalized value increases more in some years than in others, Strey said.
Since 2010, the levy limit law’s allowable increase in the property tax levy has been well under the increase in equalized value, he said.
“It really ties the hands of the county board and local units of government from (using) revenue sources,” Strey said.
Do school districts operate under the same levy limit law? Larry Bjork asked.
School districts are a little different in that they operate under a revenue limit, but school districts have similar restrictions and are having similar issues, Strey said.
Referendum
Gary Stene, county board supervisor from Colfax, pointed out that if the county went to a referendum to exceed the revenue limit by 6 percent, that would account for the property tax limit.
“Yes,” Strey said, 6 percent is close to the estimates.
A referendum is never discussed, but it is a tool for more revenue for the county and a way to keep pace with inflation, Stene said.
Dunn County works really hard to support economic development and spends time and money and effort to get people to build in Dunn County and bring their businesses and their jobs and their employees, and then the county does not generate enough income from the growth to build a road for the people who move here, Larry Bjork said.
“It’s just crazy,” he said.
As Gary Stene said, the county should consider a referendum so the people know the need is there, and then they can make the decision to accept the raise in taxes, said Mike Rogers, county board supervisor from Menomonie.
At the end of the county board meeting, Charles Maves, county board supervisor from Boyceville, said that he, too, would support a referendum.
County staff can “figure out how to work this next year,” he said.
The time has come to let taxpayers know how bad the budget situation has been for the last 15 years, Maves said.
The Dunn County Board unanimously approved the total tax levy of $23,326,890.
The property tax levy includes $10,332,172 for the general fund; $3,839,761 for the special revenue fund; $4,637,055 for the debt service funds; $3,704,360 for the highway fund.
