TAXPAYERS RESEARCH COUNCIL Y OUR T AX A DVOCATE S INCE 1937

N EWS AND N OTES

February 16, 2012

B UDGET S EASON O UTLOOK :

WOODBURY

C OUNTY

The Woodbury County Board of Supervisors have made cuts and fund transfers in an attempt to find ways to reduce their property tax askings for the Fiscal Year 2013 budget. Their goal was to offset about $1.9 million in property tax funded expenditures and they came up with about $1.5 million in changes. This means the typical home within a city will see an increase to their property taxes by about 1.5% and a typical business in city will see a decrease in their property taxes by 2.9%. A typical rural home will see an increase of 3.9% in property taxes and a typical rural business will see a decrease in property taxes by 0.5%. Agriculture land will see an increase of 10.2% in property taxes. The supervisors had requested departments to submit budgets with a 0% increase for items which are not related to employee wages and benefits. A few departments did not comply and majority of these departments received cuts to their budget proposals to reach the 0% increase. One major increase in county expenditures is due to a majority of county employees receiving an increase of 2% in their wages. The Sheriff Departments had a proposed $268,520 in overtime for the next fiscal year. This proposal was cut by about $90,000. This cut was formulated by taking a five year average of the Sheriffs Departments overtime and factoring in the wage increases over this time period. This formula analysis was a fair way to determine how much over time should be budgeted. However, unless a major disaster occurs during the next budget year, there should be no reason for the overtime to go over budget. This current budget year, the supervisors have approved two health insurance premium holidays. This allowed the supervisors to take about $523,000, which would have gone to the countys self insured health fund, to reduce the property tax askings in the Fiscal Year 2013 budget. The supervisors deserve credit for implementing a five year Capital Improvement Program. This change will allow for proper tracking of capital projects and the county can have a plan in place to address future needs. This change is an issue the Taxpayers Research Council has advocated for. In the past, capital improvement projects were paid for in various budget line items which made it difficult to track what was being funded and how it was being funded. There are some challenges in the budget which still need to be addressed by the supervisors. There are several non state mandated programs which receive county funds. These organizations do not submit their budgets summaries to the supervisors and they do not have to come before the supervisors during the budget hearings to show what they will be using the money for. The Taxpayers Research Council is advocating for these organizations receive the same examination as any typical county department budget receives.

LocalTaxRates *subjecttochangeatpublichearing WoodburyCounty Per$1000ofassessedvalue Cities Rural $7.73783 $10.05311 FY2012 $7.51334 $9.99443 FY2013

Thank You for Your Membership! SiouxCity Per$1000ofassessedvalue FY2012 FY2013 $16.65736 $15.98736 Ernst Swedean & Associates L&L Builders Nymann & Kohl