The Pope County Board of Commissioners adopted its preliminary budget and property tax levy for 2023 at its regular Board meeting last Tuesday, Sept. 20.

After a review of requested expenditures by county management and outside entities, the board adopted a preliminary property tax levy for 2023 of $10,179,669, an increase of 7.9% over 2022. 

“We’ve been budgeting in (general) fund balance use. What we’re seeing with inflation and changes in the market, I think it is justified to start with that number,” said County Administrator Kappmeyer at the meeting.  Commissioner Haggerty responded that she feels that a  5.9%  increase is where the preliminary levy needs to be set. “With the fund balance, I don’t think we need to go to the 7.9% number. I understand the point of starting high and going down, but I don’t like that.”  Haggerty was the only commissioner to vote against setting the preliminary levy at the 7.9% increase.  

The 2022 levy was set at $9,434,355, a 3.9% increase from the 2021 levy. The preliminary budget was set with expenditures of $20,606,673; non-levy revenues of $9,203,466; County program aid of $627,064; and planned fund balance use of $596,474.

From 2017 to 2021, the Pope County property tax levy had remained the same or decreased, with 0% adjustments in 2018 and 2019, and decreases of 0.75% and 3.0% respectively in 2020 and 2021. The property tax levy fell from $9,431,796 to $9,090,226 in the five budget years between 2017 and 2021, before recently being raised back to $9,434,355 in 2022.

The ability to rely on less property tax levy dollars than would normally have been warranted in recent years was made possible by “conservative budgeting and the planned, limited use of county fund balances to lessen reliance on levied property tax funding during this period,” said Pope County Administrator Kersten Kappmeyer. “These same approaches will be used in the coming months to find opportunities for lessening the preliminary property tax levy before the county’s final budget for 2023 is adopted in December.”

Under Minnesota law, the county preliminary property tax levy can only remain the same or decrease at the time of the 2023 final budget adoption. The Pope County Board, county administration, elected officials and appointed managers will continue to examine the expenditures and revenues projected in the preliminary budget for opportunities to adjust the budget to reduce costs and achieve a final levy amount lower than that adopted in the preliminary budget, it was stated.

Increased expenditures for materials, services and labor; decreased revenues from outside sources; and generally unprecedented inflationary factors in the high single-digits were some of the contributing factors in setting the 2023 preliminary budget and levy.

In other business, the county approved a tax and value abatement on a parcel that suffered damage from the storms and was set on fire as well as tax and value abatements on the hay shed that caught fire earlier this year. 

There will be a drainage hearing at the October 18 meeting of the board starting at 9 a.m. 

The board approved the HRA/EDA preliminary levy request of 1.64 percent for 2023 spending. “This is the same percentage as last year. It’s more funds than last year, but the percent of the levy is not changing,” said Jason Murray.