County board OK’s preliminary tax levy

By Tom Hintgen (Contact) | The Daily Journal

Published Tuesday, September 16, 2008

On Monday the Otter Tail County Board of Commissioners approved a preliminary net property tax levy of $27.69 million, for the payable year 2009. This represents a 5.89 percent increase over the net property tax levy ($26.15 million) for the payable year 2008.

County program aid saved taxpayers $2.19 million, dropping the gross county property tax levy from $29.88 million to the net property tax levy of $27.69 million.

“The preliminary levy is submitted to the State Department of Revenue for review and approval of the special levies that Otter Tail County is claiming,” County Auditor Wayne Stein said.

The final adopted Otter Tail County budget will be reported to the State Auditor in January of 2009

“However,” said Stein, “our budget is not subject to their approval. The State Auditor’s office will use our budgetary information when the 2009 financial activities of the county are audited.”

Previously, the Otter Tail County Budget Committee met to discuss and review the financial figures in general terms of levy and budgetary guidelines. This was done in addition to a review of the proposed 2009 department budgets and various agency requests.

The final adoption of the budget and levy will be made in December 2008.

The county board also approved $70.03 million as the proposed budget for the general fund, for the budgeted special revenue funds and for the budgeted debt service fund for fiscal year 2009.

The five-member Otter Tail County Board of Commissioners approved $113,550 as the proposed Lake Improvement District property tax levy for 2009, up 13.05 percent from payable year 2008. The amount of $357,000 was approved as the proposed Otter Tail County Housing and Redevelopment Authority (HRA) special property tax levy for 2009, a 27.50 percent increase from 2008.

The Office of the State Auditor is a constitutional office that’s charged with overseeing more than $20 billion spent annually by local governments in Minnesota, including Otter Tail County.

This state agency performs audits of local government financial statements (including Otter Tail County and the other 86 counties in Minnesota) and reviews documents, data and reports.

The financial information collected from local governments is analyzed and is the basis of statutory reports issued by the Office of the State Auditor.