The Sherburne County Board Tuesday approved the 2017 preliminary tax levy in the amount of $44,482,537.

 

 That represents a 3.65% increase over this year’s levy, but is a reduction from the preliminary levy of $44,909,066 set in September.

 

In addition, board  approved the 2017 Regional Rail Authority levy at $1,460,292, down from $1,622,833 this year and the same amount proposed in the preliminary levy in September.

 

The reduction is partially due to a higher contribution from MnDOT for the NorthStar Link bus program and lower debt service.

 

The board also approved the 2017 budget at $83,136,404, which is a 2% increase over the 2016 budget. That includes the Regional Rail budget.

 

The biggest budget items continue to be health & human services (HHS) at $19,663,307, public works at $19,192,873 and law enforcement/corrections at $16,936,866.

 

Revenues and grants will help cover some of the budget expenditures. HHS will see $12,077,709 in revenues. Public works will use state and federal dollars totalling $9,003,743.

 

Parks, trails and open space will see a significant budget increase from $199,400 to $717,873, however, only $195,411 of that amount will be funded by levy dollars. 

 

Administrator Steve Taylor said growth is helping keep the tax rates down.

 

“We see a number of favorable trends: Increasing population which leads us to growth in housing permits. We’ve add to our tax base by 30%. We’re seeing more construction Residential home values have increased by an average of 3.5%,” he said. “But we still have a number of challenges, like dealing with state mandates.” 

 

The county is adding 7.5 fulltime staff positions, with 5.5 of those supported by the tax levy. Of those, four are driven by state mandated programs in HHS or the county attorney’s office.

 

Taylor said 73% of the budget increase was due to wage and benefit increases.

 

Commissioner Bruce Anderson said the budget discussions were lengthy and covered mandates, personnel requests and union negotiations.

 

“There’s things we have no control over,” he said, referring to mandates that required additional staff for MNsure and child protection.

 

Commissioner Rachel Leonard said the budget and levy could have been much higher.

 

“We wouldn’t be at this low level if we hadn’t done a lot of planning and made good decisions, like the Enterprise Fund that Legacy Grant,” she said.

 

The county also brought in tax revenue from selling land for economic development.

 

“This would have been a lot more if those things hadn’t been done,” she said.

 

Taylor said the tax impact on an average home valued between $198,500 and $205,400 would have decreased if valuations remained the same. With the 3.5% valuation increase, those properties will pay about $3 per month in additional property taxes.