Koochiching County commissioners this week reviewed a list of issues they believe the 2013 Legislature should consider when it convenes in January.
Newly-elected lawmakers, Sen. Tom Bakk and Rep. David Dill, are expected to meet with commissioners in January to further discuss the issues on the list.
Topping the list are state budget issues that could impact county operations and residents, including restoring the market value homestead credit.
The credit was eliminated in the 2011 session as part of an agreement between Gov. Mark Dayton and Republicans in the Legislature, which held a majority in the House and Senate, that ended the state’s longest government shutdown. The credit was an aid paid by the state to local governments to reduce the taxes on homestead properties. The credit was replaced with a homestead market value exclusion. The exclusion reduces the market value for taxable purposes of homestead property. The change in programs resulted in a large reduction of the local tax base and a resulting cost shift to property owners while saving the state budget.
Commissioners have said the elimination of the credit caused the largest tax increase in the history of the county.
Other issues in the state budget category on the county’s list include regionalization and redesign of delivery of county services and veterans transportation funding, and state planning for an insurance exchange under the Federal Health Care Act.
Funding issues include seeking state bonding money for Island View sewer project that would expand sewer collection to the Island View area, and for the Renewable Energy Clean Air Project, which would use a plasma arc torch to vaporize garbage and other waste to produce synthetic gas and slag.
The county will also ask local lawmakers to help retain what is known as PILT, payment in lieu of taxes. Koochiching receives $500,000 in PILT for 854,000 acres of land in the state’s school trust. Bills considered during the 2012 session would have eliminated the payments to some northern counties containing school trust lands.
The list also includes taking a position on the outcomes of ongoing state reviews of wetland and shoreland state rules.
The board will also seek through the Legislature a permanent resolution that retains public access to property owned by Molpus Timberlands Management. An interim agreement reached in October that allows public access to the company’s property ends when the 2013 session adjourns.
Rep. David Dill and Sen. Tom Bakk said in October that they will bring to the Legislature a need for tax reform that would lower the cost of ownership and operation of forest lands, including a 2010 law that placed a cap on the payments made to large land owners enrolled in the Sustainable Forest Incentive Act at $100,000, as well as investigating the removal of the acreage restriction of the 2c property tax classification.
Dill and Bakk said in a statement in October that attempts will be made to secure funding from the Lessard Outdoor Heritage Council and the Legislature to purchase a conservation easement on lands owned by Molpus and not already under easement to assure future public access.
Commissioners have said they are concerned that the permanent resolution will involve property tax relief and shifting the tax burden to all other taxpayers. That scenario would make it difficult to increase tax levies when the state cuts general aid.
