OTC saw a 4.71 percent tax levy increase

By Tom Hintgen

Otter Tail County Correspondent

County residents now have their tax statements for 2022. Some home owners see decreases for 2022 while others see increases compared to 2021 taxes.

“Keep in mind that everyone’s situation will be unique,” says County Auditor-Treasurer Wayne Stein. “The percent of change on individual statements can and will vary significantly.”

County commissioners, on Dec. 21, 2021, gave final approval to the 2022 tax levy. The net property tax levy of $45.4 million for 2022 represents a 4.71 percent tax increase compared to the 2021 levy.

“If you added all the county tax from the tax statements for payable 2021 and added all of the county tax from all of the tax statements for payable 2022 and calculated the difference and computed a percentage, that percentage should be close to the percentage that was determined when the levy was established,” Stein said.

“Our constituents, in my opinion, generally believe that we as a county board are trying to use tax dollars wisely.”

Wayne Johnson, Otter Tail County Commissioner

Johnson and the other four commissioners (Lee Rogness of Fergus Falls, Betty Murphy of Maine Townaship, Kurt Mortenson of rural Underwood and Dan Bucholz of rural Perham) take pride in holding public meetings on various topics, and try to be as transparent as possible about letting taxpayers know the dollar amounts.

“Budget requests for 2022 originally came in which would have resulted in a 6.43 percent tax increase for 2022, but we made the necessary adjustments to lower this to 4.71 percent,” Johnson said.

The entire budget for 2022 is approximately $137 million.

“This year our county work units were challenged to use employees in the most efficient ways as possible,” Johnson said, “before requests were made for new hires.”

Close to 34 percent of the county budget is funded with property tax dollars. The additional needed funding comes from the state and federal governments for budget items such as county road maintenance and county human services.

County taxpayers, in certain areas, also pay for Community Development Agencies, Housing and Redevelopment Associations and Lake Improvement Districts.

The structure of county government

• Economic growth and community investment: highways, solid waste, parks and trails, land management and community and economic development

• Safety and justice: county sheriff, county attorney, probation and emergency management and safety

• Finance, property and license management: auditor-treasurer, motor vehicle, recorder, assessor

• Health and wellness: public health, human services, veteran services and extension office

• Administration: human resources: IT, facilities, GIS and communications/public relations