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Lake residents in county, state turn to taxes to fight aquatic invaders
Published 11:30am Wednesday, October 3, 2012By Dan Gunderson
MPR News — 91.5 FM
MOORHEAD — Minnesota lake residents are turning to what until recently had been a little-used means of fighting aquatic invasive species – they’re taxing themselves.
Residents around lakes have increasingly started forming lake improvement districts with the authority to levy property taxes, and usually the reason is to help pay to fight the growing problem of invasive species.
Otter Tail County has seen a growing interest in lake improvement districts. The county now has five fully established LIDs and three are in the process of being formed.
Lake improvement districts within the county levy between about $5,000 and $120,000 annually. For $100,000 property owners, this comes to around $18 to $86 per year.
Not all Otter Tail County LIDs use levied funds to fight aquatic invasive species. Little McDonald and Devils Lake LIDs were primarily formed to deal with water level issues.
The Pelican Lake Improvement District, however, has been fighting curly leaf pond weed and flowering rush.
Some argue that creating such districts is really a stopgap and places the burden in the wrong place.
The Legislature authorized lake improvement districts in the 1970s, letting local authorities create special taxing districts that typically consisted of properties directly fronting on a lake.
Until 2005, it was a little used law, averaging less than one new district every year in the land of 10,000 lakes, according to the Department of Natural Resources.
But in the past few years, the average has climbed to more than three a year as more lake property associations seek the power to generate revenue, said Kathleen Metzker, who oversees the districts for the DNR.
“As they have success and they have satisfactory outcomes, other lake associations will learn about it and we’re going to see even more interest in lake improvement districts in the coming years, because the aquatic invasive species problem is here to stay,” Metzker said.
There are a number of ways to create a lake improvement district, but generally, a majority of lake residents must petition the county board.
The DNR oversees the lake improvement district program, but county commissioners approve the districts, and counties manage the new unit of government.
Crow Wing County in the Brainerd lakes region has eight lake improvement districts, more than any other county. In Crow Wing County the tax levied on each resident varies from lake to lake and ranges from $50 to $150 per year.
Because of the growing interest from voluntary lake associations, the county spent two years developing a better process to manage them, said Crow Wing County Land Services Supervisor Chris Pence.
“I think we had a lot of folks who didn’t understand the importance of what it means to be a lake improvement district,” Pence said. “It’s really not just simply a lake association with tax authority, but it really is another unit of government and with that comes certain requirements.”
The requirements include a plan for how the money will be spent, annual financial reports to the county and liability insurance.
Pence said the key requirement is a narrowly defined plan for how tax revenue will be spent to improve the lake.
“When you go in to it with eyes wide open, and understand that you’re a lake improvement district, and that you’re representing people and that you’re spending tax dollars, I think it can be effective in the limited role it plays,” Pence said. “It all depends if it’s done right.”
Creating a lake improvement district is often a contentious issue. Some lake residents want action and they’re willing to pay. Others complain they’re being taxed out of their homes.
This summer a request for a lake improvement district in Aitkin County turned into a battle of petitions. Lake association members on Lake Minnewawa petitioned the county board for an improvement district. Other lake residents gathered signatures urging the county to reject the proposal.
The county will hold a referendum vote on the issue next summer.
Lake Minnewawa resident James Bradley acknowledged that the lake has high nutrient levels and parts of it are choked with vegetation that includes invasive species. But he fought the proposal because he didn’t think money raised through an improvement district would do enough to solve the problem.
“We don’t feel like we’re getting the help we should be getting from the state,” he said. “The only hope we see is maybe through the LID where we’re doing it ourself. And we want to make sure we’re using the money properly for a solution, not just to postpone the problem.”
Bradley said if the lake improvement district takes a more aggressive approach to water quality improvement, he’ll vote for it next summer.
Jeff Forester, executive director of the Minnesota Seasonal and Recreational Property owners group, said he worried that the expansion of lake improvement districts will simply shift the cost of protecting Minnesota lakes from the state to property owners.
“It’s like the lakeshore owners are the Dutch boy with their fingers in the dike,” Forester said. “They’re there and they see the problem and they’re concerned and they do what they can, but ultimately it’s not a long-term solution.”
Boat owners should be paying this tax with their boat tabs as the boats spread the invasive species not the homeowners. Most lake homeowners do not run around to other lakes with their boats. Isn’t that why we bought a lake home? We own two lake homes and no boats. We fish from shore and the grandkids swim. To say we have to pay for this battle is totally unfair and socialist. Close all public accesses and stop people from buying fancy boats that they put in and out of lakes spreading these invasive species Or, charge a huge fee for each boat that will be on more than 1 lake per year. $100 per boat per year for 1 lake. If they want to use the boat on more than 1 lake per year, either require a different boat for each lake, of charge $1,000 for a multi-lake annual boat sticker. Tax the problem – boats.