Board of Supervisors - Special Meeting

Good morning everybody. It's 9:00 am on Thursday, March 26, 2026 and we are here to have a public hearing on the maximum property tax levy. So I will go ahead and open the public hearing at this time. Um we have Shelley from the auditor's office. We got Lisa. We have Bjorn. We got Nin, myself, and Mike for the supervisors. Uh we have for Sean from the assessor's office. So, all right, the the meeting is now open public hearing. Go. Anything you want to say? I have not received

We just received a updated fund balance. Um I have not time to review it, but is there red flags in there somewhere that I should No, it's the same. Nope, it's the same. Any reviewing?

Everything is Nothing has changed. And and for the record, um this public hearing is to set the maximum tax levy in the next week or two. We can if we need to, we can lower it, but we cannot raise it above what we are what we advertise for today. Just for the public knowledge, I did receive one uh email from your staff, Kaylin. Uh somebody called and wanted to talk about they were going to be unable to attend the meeting. I did call them back. I left a message and I received nothing back. No,

I think we all will agree that the the flyer the what we stand out the letter is a little is confusing. Um I don't know there was some discussion that possibly that the state legislature was going to be considering making changes. Were they talking about maybe eliminating this also? Um I don't know if it's a different form or eliminating. Yes, I would say that serious thought of eliminating.

Yes. I so just just as a side note so everyone so we're you know we can tell everybody last year this mailer cost Jackson County $6,38965 that was last year's mailing this year's mailing cost Jackson County $6,843.77 of which now we pay that even though we're notifying that this is also for the city and the schools but Jackson County bears this whole cost and cities and schools do not brought up several times at the meetings and they're well aware of it and they probably figured that probably unnecessary or what's our alternative I suppose I think

they're being transparent I think the whole and again we are being transparent you got to send out the mail mailer we're doing a public hearing to be transparent you know right right and when I talked to some of the legislators back in January they were like the intent was good. This isn't what they intended. Yeah, they thought it would be a lot more self-explanatory, easier to read. Um, a lot of the legislators I talked to said they struggle reading the letter that get and they created it. So, correct. Um, that being said, did anybody else receive any comments? I would say briefly we should probably go over where we're at with the levies maybe or can we

sh but no, I have not received any other questions. I have not received any other besides a couple family members asking me about it. I mean, we're bottom line briefly or understandably is about nine cents. Mhm. Yes. Or across the board or is it general or in the rule? Um, where did Shellyley go? I know some of them forms are kind of hard to read. Also, I don't want to be misqued. So, I I'm going off this one she gave us on Yeah, maybe

March second. Um, looking at that, we just take a recess till Shel's back. Yeah, why don't we go ahead and take a recess? All right, we'll go ahead reconvene at this time. And now that we have Shelley back, Shelley, do you want to kind of briefly go over the the levy rates and how they're affected in the next 27 budget? Sure. Sorry about the delay. Um, so for the countywide in um tax rates, the countywide rate went down 09884 cents per thousand. We're going to call that the general. The the general.

Nice. Okay.

So, almost 10 cents. And that the dollars because of the countywide valuation, the general valuation uh went up approximately 300,000. um that the dollars went up 300,000 $34,12 um because of the increase in uh the general countywide valuation. So if you you you took the current the new uh tax rate of 5.28054 times the general countywide valuation for next year, it would increase the tax dollars by $34,12. Um then the rural theirs went up. Uh the sub the rural went down but the rural the supplemental went up. So it's an increase of approximately 20 or 19 cents per thousand. Thank you.

It's about 97. What I have on my sheet is 0840. Well, that's the countywide. So the if you take the countywide of 09884 lowered and then increase subtract the rural supplemental by 089086. Yeah. and then increase that rural by the supplemental of 27631 that countywide including the rural would be lower overall by zero 08841 cents per thousand.

Okay, rough numbers is that the general went down 9 cents and the rule went down 8 cents or went down 17 cents. The total rule supplemental went up. So bottom line is bottom line is there's a 9 cent tax total tax rate decrease increase increase well yes and the reason the reason this is if I understand it right is because the way the state changed their property taxes u and how we can bill for it we're limited yes

we are limited it used to be a 350 levy for the general and a 39 95 uh rate limit for the rural and they started looking at evaluations plus how much you spent and you can't now our maximum for the general is what 326 yes and for the rural is 296 something so we've lost about a$125 in levying authority

that is forcing us to look at where things can be placed in the budget and where they can't be and that is why some of the stuff and this is insurance the the rural supplemental if I understand it remember it's the FICA the IPERS that kind of fees those are the only things that can really be in the supplemental other things can't be so we had to move that back in there which constituted the increase and because to fall under our levy rates we had to take them out of where we had them and so it's a kind of a shell type of thing, but it's the only way we could get it to work. So, yes, it looks like a 20. That expense isn't a new expense. It was just there in another category, which to make the numbers work, we had to move it back into this category cuz it was at zero. Now, we had to put it in there. That raised it up. So, that expense was always there. It just wasn't in the rural supplement.

We're just getting the dollars from a different right uh different fund, right? So yes, they are they are we are only allowed so much growth, right? That's that's part of the problem is growth even though the growth that they limit us to is half of what inflation usually is. So, um it's

well and part of the problem is when and it's great that when the cities have tiff projects and they pay those off the valuation in that it it's called increment which is where the cities get their the increase in valuation from a frozen year when they started the the tiff project. That increase in valuation is where the cities get their their tip dollars to pay off rebates and development agreements and pay for infrastructure for their projects. So when those are paid off, that valuation goes back into regular valuations. The state includes that in our increase in valuation

and grows. Yes. So that's that's that's you know again And I was under the understanding when they did all this that new construction was eliminated from all that too. Nobody can give me an answer. They've talked about I've asked them out there. I've asked Nobody can give me an answer. And new construction they say is left out. But the problem is by the time it drops back into our our coffin, our coffers, our our budget, it's 10 or 15 years old because that's when the development agreement expires. So it's not new development anymore to us. It's just increased evaluation because the property where it's coming from is 10 or 15 years old.

But I believe that we had to have our software provider come up with a program so we could and correct me if I'm wrong, Sean, but didn't we have to have where they Well, didn't they have to know what the new construction was, what the value was? So, I believe they're tracking new construction. Correct. See, so they're tracking the new construction valuations. So, that's interesting. They know about it. So I'm not talking about tiff districts. New construction. I'm talking about rule rule rules rule uh construction. New construction houses farm buildings new buildings. Yes. New construction commercial. Yeah. So we are allowed to

they they include that valuation increase in the overall valuation in the overall growth. Yep. And and that's not fair. Nope. Yeah. We had somebody join the public hearing. Sir, do you want to introduce yourself or do you have anything you want to say? My name is Elman. I'm just trying to figure out what's the meaning about really. I'm not I know I'm a little late, but Okay, you're fine.

Okay. No, welcome. Glad to have you. So, it is it's us trying to figure out, you know, with them with the state talking about they're going to their top priority in this legislative cycle is to revamp property taxes again. Um this is all going to change probably. Um if they it sounds like they want to make a decision this this this session. Um we'll see what that is. There's a lot of fallout sometime. Hopefully it doesn't take an effect this budget, but they have done that before too. Um so uh this is us doing the best we can. We went through the budget line by line. We we tried to trim the fat every every every way we can and uh it's just us trying to make it work because you know we try to trim it as much as we can but if you trim too much um the state don't let you get it back anymore and so it's kind of a self uh a self penalization in in effect because we can't it's what I remember is that every year they talked about the the tax the taxes would reset that. But now that we know that that they ain't and they can't. And so they don't understand that. At least the the legislators I talked to don't quite understand why that is. And uh but here we sit and it's getting harder and harder and harder to do what we need to do. Um, we tried looking at insurance and and it literally got more expensive to kind of reduce the the amount of insurance things that we wanted to insure because we didn't do the the umbrella policy. If we broke it apart, so to speak, it actually got as it would almost be more expensive. So, uh,

so the reason they opposed this whole, um, 2% growth and all these, uh, deductions was because there was 30 counties that, and they called them the dirty 30 that were over the 350 and we were not one of them. We we but we get penalized because of them and and it was their problem. Um, and it imposed a penalty on all of us basically. So, it reduced our asking as a whole. I don't know Mr. Elberman, if you want an explanation, a brief summary just to say basically the the the levy rates are going down in two different budget areas and it's going up county total 9 cents

8 8.84 8.8841 88416, you know, and uh and like I say, the the one area where it looks like it's going up a lot is because we didn't have anything in that budget and we had to move things in expenses from other budgets into that because that's the only thing that we could put in there per state law that we had in other budgets. It was kind of a because the other budgets were maxed out, right? Trying to get under the new forced Yes. levy rate and

and the valuation I will say that the valuation the state it their limitation is they limit us to 2% of growth based on 2526 uh budget years valuation they don't take it back to um the 3.5 right right so that's why it's just keeps that our val uh tax rate in the general fund keeps lowering because of not allowing us to use that increased valuation from this the reset so or the initial

I see you pulled out your mailer. Uh it is a general consensus that everybody in this room to include this the the legislators that passed it nobody can really read and understand what it says. So don't feel don't feel bad.

So if you don't understand what it says, no, I will tell you I can see where the tax increase is in that letter because I know the answer to the math problem and you can reverse reverse math, figure it out and see it. I am disappointed in how difficult it is to read because usually we could raise taxes probably 40 cents per thousand and that letter would look like it's a tax decrease. I don't understand it. Every time I look at it, it doesn't make sense. We take it to the state. We show it to and they're like they they're talking about trying to get rid of that letter because the people that passed that made it law don't understand quite how to read it. Oh,

yeah. So, we we completely agree with that letter. Just, you know, there's a trash can over there if you want. It's it's a shame. Um but it's an expense for us to send out something. Yeah. We could spend it in Yeah, nobody understands it. Keep in mind though that that letter talks about three public hearings if you're in a city. Yes. A city school and the county. So you know this this is a 9 cent tax increase for just the county. We don't know what the cities have done. Right. So they also are trying to inform you if you live in a city. Okay. So

okay. So then you also then can contribute. You can go to a school board um public hearing. I mean basically I couldn't go to the end of school meeting because of time of the meeting. Yeah. Time of the meeting. I was just under trying to understand where or some lead. Yeah. Yeah. Well, I mean that's you have to understand that I think most schools I can I can say most schools are at least 50% of your property taxes are for the school district,

right? And if I understand it right, at least in the Makoka school district, theirs is going down. not because they wanted to or they needed to because they got too much money is they only get so much tax dollars per student enrollment and if enrollment drops their budget drops and they they have to adjust accordingly and and I empathize with the school boards because they are just beyond themselves strapped pretty pretty handcuffed. Yeah. Yeah.

So, so what we're talking about is only a third of what or a half of what is on your letter because if you're in the county, you got school and you got county. We're just talking about us. We are not, this is not a a a joint list what we're talking about. This is just for county. The school will have just theirs and if you're in city, the city will have theirs. And uh so if you look if you look at this flyer

and you compare your current let's um I'll talk about the counties. If you look at the current tax rate column the third column to the right from the from the left current tax rate that tells you what we're taxing right now. If you go over clear to the right, the proposed tax rate, that is what the school board

the county is proposing. So that and if you look at the urban, it going from 5.37938 up to 5.2 or down to 5.28054. And the rural, which is would be you, it's going from 8.43721 43721 up to 8.52562 9 cents. 9 cents. Yes. And if you want to know what the dollars are, you would look at the current property tax, the second one from the left, and compare that from the second one from the right.

Understandable? No.

Make it clear. clear as mud. It's really really complicated because of the, you know, in defense of the assessor, the assessments, whatever it is. I mean, this started back four or five years ago when interest rates were below three. Figure this out. People were borrowing money to make money. So, and properties were selling 10, 20, 30%, 10, 20, 30, 40, 50,000 more than what they were valued at because the money was available. So now that's catching up the sales comparisons. They have to legally go by the sales comparisons. We they can't justify somebody paid 50,000 more for that house of what it's worth. Okay. Well, I guess they think it is. So be it. The more you pay for it, the more it's worth. I guess, you know, but the point is that's catching up with, you know, the values are catching up. So your growth is Yeah. It's going to change again. It's it's just a complicated

formula. And the assessor's office is also hamstringed by the state because if they don't keep up with what the state feels as current market rates, they will come in with equalization orders and they willank a blanket everybody increases to such and such amount to get them to whatever. So, um it is it's state driven. Yes, exactly. Up to your yard, don't ask for a special exception. Well, I'm going to tell you this. All in all, it is what it is, and I'm happy I live here, you know.

And that being said, I saw that the assessor's office sent out a notice that there's going to be vanguard people going around and looking at residential properties, correct?

And work with them. Uh, you know, I hate to say if you don't let them in, you don't cooperate. They can make stuff, they can do the best they can to come up with that. So, um, but, uh, they are coming around. So, know that that is a legitimate thing. um they will identify themselves and all that kind of stuff to make sure you know it's legit. You can call the courthouse or the assessor's office and they will verify. But they are going around to do an evaluation, you know, because it's something we have to do because if the state does equalization orders, that's that's that's bad. You know, it's it's it's not a fair um

again, Don, it could be to your benefit because the last time they did this, your evaluation may be based on comparable sales when things were outrageous. So, this could be your benefit. It could actually go down. An evaluation could actually go down. Yeah. So, but uh anything else for the good of the public hearing? Did we answer all your questions or at least make them muddier or clear? um somewhat clear.

And I will say that this public hearing is just for the supervisors to um inform the public what the proposed property tax maximum proposed property tax dollars and levy rates are. It's not anything to do with um the expense budget, you know, the revenue. I mean it's just and we have to make our final decision by um next week next Tuesday you will set the public hearing which will have the budget set. Okay. If you have concerns feel free to bring a motion forward next Tuesday. Okay. Yeah.

The only question I've been asked so far is is there somewhere that the public can see your proposed county budget? Well, when we after we set the public hearing, it will be on our website. It will be on the front page of our website. Yeah. Okay. Perfect. Because that was the question I had was why have this meeting when I don't know what's in the budget? So was the proposed I know I ask questions if I don't get what's in the budget published the proposed budget is it been published no because you haven't approved it yet that's what we'll do next Tuesday right

and for this meet this is to just set the maximum tax levy rate we can go through between now and next Tuesday we can say okay we're going to scratch this and this and we can lower that rate we cannot raise it above what we set in this public hearing And so that's why, you know, the budget could still change. Um, once we set it the public hearing meeting next Tuesday, that kind of locks the budget in place. It can't be changed after that. Then it can be um it can be lowered, but raised. It can be it can be lowered, but that's where we can put it out on the website so everybody can see it. So, any other questions?

And we will have copies of the budget available in our office once it's set. Yes. Big thick budget. It's like two inches thick. It's That's the budget. That's the Yeah. If there's no further questions or I would make a motion to close public hearing. I would second that. Got a motion by Mike, second by N to close the public hearing for the proposed uh maximum property tax levy for fiscal year 27. Any other discussion? All those in favor say I. I. I. Oppos. Hearing is now close.

All right. And we are we take a motion to adjourn. I'll make the motion to adjurnn. Second. A motion by N. Second by Mike to adjurnn. Any other discussion? All those in favor say I. I. I. Motion carries. Have a good day everybody. Young.