The City of Crookston held its “Truth in Taxation” hearing on Monday night inside of the City Hall Council Chambers. The hearing was an opportunity for members of the public to raise concerns or ask questions about how the city’s 2022 tax levy will affect the taxpayers.
After the “Truth in Taxation” hearing was over, the City Council adopted the budget and tax levy by approving resolutions at their City Council meeting. The Council approved city staff to move forward with certifying an 8% tax levy increase for 2022. The estimates for how it will affect homeowners can be found down below. Estimates are for properties that have not changed in value over the past year.
| Homestead Value | 2021 annual estimate | 2022 8% annual | Annual difference | 2021 monthly estimate | 2022 8% monthly estimate | Monthly difference |
| $100,000 | $414 | $441 | $26 | $34 | $36 | $2 |
| $150,000 | $729 | $776 | $47 | $60 | $64 | $4 |
| $200,000 | $1,044 | $1,111 | $67 | $87 | $92 | $5 |
City Administrator Amy Finch said the 8% increase will raise taxes, but the effects over the year aren’t as significant as it initially looks. “In the “Truth in Taxation” hearing, we didn’t talk about increases over other levels from the past, but rather looked at what the estimated annual cost would be at 8%,” said Finch. “We show it broken down monthly because that gets the point across that it isn’t really that much in the grand scheme of things, and it hasn’t increased that much. For me, I could cut out two meals of eating out over the course of a year, and I would make up for that annual difference just like that.”
Finch also mentioned an 8% increase is close to the average city tax levy in the state of Minnesota for this budget year. “All of the cities in the state had to certify their preliminary levy with the state by September 30,” said Finch. “So, after collecting that data, the total preliminary levy’s in the state are up 6.8%. That means some are above, and some are below, but the levies are going up this year, and we aren’t far off of the average.”
An illustration that was given to show how the tax dollars are used by the city is demonstrated below.
For every $1 in taxes paid, $.60 of it goes to the Parks & Recreation department, $.28 goes to the general fund, $.11 goes to the library, and $.1 goes to the airport. Those are the levied funds within the city. The city departments and services that benefit the most and can stay operating from the general fund are Police Department, Public Works Department, and Fire Department.
The total tax levy for the city in 2022 is estimated at $2,523,384. Finch explained what will happen moving forward, now that the budget, tax levy, and five-year capital improvement plan were all approved at the City Council meeting later that night. “All of those resolutions during the City Council meeting passed,” said Finch. “So, the staff’s next step will be certifying the levy with the county, which will do by sending over the resolution data.”
The information from the “Truth in Taxation” hearing can be found by contacting the city at 218-281-1232. The video of the hearing will also be uploaded to the city’s YouTube page sometime tomorrow, where a breakdown of the presentation and information that was shared can be found.
