The final levy was adopted by the Breezy Point City Council at their December 5th meeting. The levy is the same amount as that of last year, a zero percent increase. However with that being said the majority of taxpayers are seeing an increase in their taxes for several reasons. Some of these are more obvious than others so let me explain.
The city levy remians the same as last year but other jurisdictions also raise revenue with taxes. The county and the school district are the major ones. There is also a small levy associated with the Regional Development Commission and some properties within the 50 Lakes Watershed District.
Another factor in raising taxes is that of referendums. Pequot Lakes Schools added a levy for a school building project that will taxes that start in 2012. There are also excess levy referendums that show up on the tax bill.
With changes in the market value of your property, changes occur to your tax bill. Properties can increase and decrease in value affecting taxes. A change in the market value this year which was new was the Market Value Homestead Exclusion. This program reduced “taxable market value” of homesteaded properties on a sliding scale with the most benefit going to homestead properties with a market value of $76,000 and no benefit to properties with a market value in excess of $413,800. The effects of this are lower valued homestead properties see a reduction in value for tax purposes and higher valued homestead properties get smaller or no reduction in taxable market value. Overall this change leads to a reduction in the total tax capacity for a jurisdiction. It also leads to a shifting of tax burden from lower value homestead properties to all other taxpayers.
Changes in the taxing jurisdictions total value can have an effect on your tax. In Breezy Point we saw a reduction in total taxable value of 14.7%. These reductions came from general declines in property valuation, the market value homestead exclusion, tax appeals and other downward adjustments.
Each property sees different changes based on the whole as well as individual characteristics. Each city has a different shift in tax burden as a result of these types of dynamics. If your homestead property has a value of $150,000 or less you probably saw a reduction in city taxes. If your homestead property exceeds that amount your city taxes likely increased. All other taxable property saw increases in taxes as a result of these changes.
