Each year, Sherburne County holds a tax forfeit sale of properties that are delinquent on their taxes.

 

In some years the sale doesn’t bring in much revenue. A few years back when the recession caused developers to stop paying taxes on vacant lots and hundreds of homes went into foreclosure, the county had an abundance of tax-forfeited properties for sale. Unfortunately, there were few takers.

 

 As the economy began to improve, some of those properties began to sell. At the end of 2012, the county distributed $144,904.80 from that year’s tax sale. 

 

And as buyers became more interested in building again, those numbers increased over the next four years to $283,094.33 in 2013, $413,081.13 in 2014, $493,677.13 in 2015 and $504,703.37 in 2016.

 

That number went down to $362,508.88 last year, not from a lack of interest, but because of a smaller inventory of available properties.

 

The annual tax sale serves two purposes: It gets properties back on the tax rolls to help pay for services, and it gives someone a chance to build a new home or renovate a property.

 

Proceeds from the tax sale also benefit the county and other jurisdictions. The county follows a similar formula each year to distribute the proceeds.

 

The county’s revenue fund and local school districts each receive 40% of the net distribution. That total was $114,608.38 each in 2017. The remaining 20% is distributed among cities and townships, depending on where the forfeited properties were located.

 

The biggest distribution ($72,926.57) in 2017 went to Elk River School Dist. 728.

 

Becker School Dist 726 was next with $28,316.72.

 

Dispersements to other school districts were: Dist. 727 Big Lake - $5,877.63; Dist. 477 Princeton $5,031.05 and Dist. 742 St. Cloud $2,456,49.

 

Livonia Twp. had the largest distribution of any city or township in the county at $21,237.51. The City of Becker was next at $13,500.11.

 

The county also transferred $71,630.30 of its allocation to the county parks fund.