The Polk County Commissioners met on Tuesday morning and considered two tax abatement requests from IC Muggs, and Happy Joes Pizza and Ice Cream Parlor. The board denied the abatement requests as they’d done with two additional requests last month from RBJ’s Restaurant and Drafts Sports Bar & Grill.
Director of Property Records Michelle Cote said a Minnesota Department of Revenue recommendation was to deny the requests because there is no legal statutory way to apply these types of abatement requests individually. “Today’s abatements were for the Happy Joes building and IC Muggs,” said Cote. “In the past, the board has denied two previous abatement applications. The fundamental thought behind the denial is there is no statutory legal way to do this on an individual basis. We didn’t advertise for this; we didn’t have a hearing. We need to be able to systematically apply it to every single entity and there is no statutory way to fairly do that. Based on a recommendation from the Department of Revenue we are denying these abatements.”
Polk County Administrator Chuck Whiting said the county received $3,985,249 in CARES Act funding and he hopes to be able to bring a plan of how to spend that money to the board by the end of July. “We’ve been informed the amount for Polk County is just under $4 million,” said Whiting. “From what we understand, it’s federal money that has to be used for COVID-19 related expenses. So, we’re going through everything we’ve dealt with here in the last several months. There is some other aspects to it that counties around the state are looking into how to use it to help communities with the impacts of COVID-19. Hopefully, we’ll be able to come back before the board before the end of July with a little more firm plan of how to use that money.”
Cote said some of the CARES Act funding may be able to provide relief for those impacted by COVID-19 in the community. “What we are hopeful for, as Chuck talked about today, is that we’re receiving about $3.9 million dollars,” said Cote. “That we will have some sort of forum where we can fairly distribute on an application, grant type basis some of that funding that we’ve received to offer relief to those that have been incredibly impacted by COVID-19.”
The Board also tentatively supported a union contract with the Polk County social workers. The workers voted to unionize several months ago, and the Whiting said he believes the contract would be approved by the board if the union approves it. “We’ve reached a tentative agreement,” said Whiting. “I think it’s a good transition for them from where they’ve been to what some of our other unions have. We’ll wait for them to vote and I’m pretty sure an affirmative vote on their end will mean an affirmative vote on our end. And we can get that episode wrapped up before we have to negotiate the next contract sometime next year.”
The board also decided to make no initial changes in the 2021 Board of Commissioners Budget, noting that they haven’t used much of the 2020 budget due to the pandemic, and they can make reductions throughout the budget cycle, but it is harder to add things in later. With the 2021 budget process starting for the county, Whiting said the county wants to remain conservative and sensitive to county economics from the COVID-19 pandemic. “With the pandemic, it being an election year, and nothing is normal right now, the board is having discussions on what type of issues we’re going to be facing going into the budget,” said Whiting. “We’re going to try to be conservation in our approach and we’re trying to be sensitive too, to what the economics of the county are. Most of our work has continued almost at the levels or more then what it was pre-pandemic. But, there are some things also not getting done, some things we’ve had as expenses that don’t show up anymore. And try to make sure the revenues the county gets, most of which have nothing to do with property tax dollars, are maintained.”
The Polk County Government Center is also open, although they are requesting that people make appointments or use the dropbox for some services to help keep the public healthy and safe said Whiting. “This is probably the fourth week we’ve been open,” said Whiting. “The main service we provide is at the taxpayer service center counter, real estate transactions, licenses, and so forth, and the DMV. When people come up, we’re still trying to maintain the social distancing, so we’re allowing a certain number of people in at a time. It may feel inconvenient but we’re also trying to look out for the resident’s health and safety. So, you can contact us, make an appointment, come on up, and we’re cycling people through pretty good. We’ve got a dropbox we’ve gotten a lot of compliments on that can be used day and night, and our turnaround is basically 24 hours.”
Whiting said that while pandemic has been inconvenient for everyone, the county is continuing their work and responding to resident’s needs. “It’s just been such a strange few months as we’ve adjusted,” said Whiting. “We’re as open as we can be right now. I think until this thing comes to an end, we’re situated to continue doing the work we’re doing and responding to people’s needs. But, nothing was convenient about it for anybody.”
