LAKE COUNTY RESIDENTS gather in a meeting room at The Hillside for the Lake County Commission's third and likely final town hall meeting on Wednesday to discuss county finances and a potential property tax increase. The County Commission has discussed potential increases for months at meetings and has hosted these town hall meetings to educate the public and ask for feedback.
LAKE COUNTY RESIDENTS gather in a meeting room at The Hillside for the Lake County Commission's third and likely final town hall meeting on Wednesday to discuss county finances and a potential property tax increase. The County Commission has discussed potential increases for months at meetings and has hosted these town hall meetings to educate the public and ask for feedback.
More than 30 Lake County residents attended the County Commission’s third and likely final town hall meeting on Wednesday, discussing a potential increase in property taxes.
The Lake County Commission held one town hall in April and a second in May to get public feedback and provide education on two potential property tax increases -– an opt-out and a road and bridge levy. The first two took place in the Lake County Courthouse, while this week’s was hosted at The Hillside Resort at the request of the Lake Madison Development Association.
For the past several months, the County Commission has considered property tax increases to supplement the county budget. Since 2010, Lake County has had to use cash reserves, functionally the county’s savings, to fund county services. This practice is “unsustainable,” said Commission Administrative Officer Shelli Gust.
Since the amount in tax dollars the county is allowed to ask for isn’t keeping up with inflation, Gust said, one of the only options is to increase property tax revenue in another way.
“This is not going to allow you to do more. It’s just going to maintain, and maybe not even maintain,” Gust said at a previous meeting.
A road and bridge levy would be a tax increase of $0.60 per thousand dollars of property value. This would generate about $1.14 million in total. This money could only be used to repair and maintain roads and bridges.
With an opt-out, the county would request additional tax dollars, like $1.5 million. Then, a levy would be set based on the amount requested. To receive $1.5 million, taxpayers would see an increase of $0.79 per thousand dollars of property value. Money from an opt-out would go to the general fund, where it could support all county services.
Several people who spoke at the meeting expressed concerns about not seeing many county services out in their area, as many people live within road districts, meaning their road maintenance is completed and paid for by the road district rather than the county.
The lakes areas have also seen more development and higher property values, and some said they were experiencing a disproportionate tax burden to how many county services they received. Others asked about why certain roads were or weren’t repaired, replaced or maintained properly.
“Some of the frustration in the room is that, ‘What have you done for us?’ or ‘What do we get from this?’ said Mark Kreutzfeldt, who attended the meeting. “We see all the growth out there, but there’s very little [in county services].”
Another resident, Steve Kant, attended the previous meeting and said he was opposed to the county increasing property taxes.
“You sit here and tell us you’re all for roads, but you decreased the road budget last year by $750,000,” Kant said. “How can you sit here and ask us for road and bridge money when you basically tore that budget apart last year?”
He also expressed concerns that a lower proportion of the general property tax dollars will go to the Highway Department if a road and bridge levy passes. The road and bridge levy would be used to fund road repair instead of general fund dollars, and it would not increase the Highway Department budget meaningfully, he said.
Gust said that was true. She said that, because the Highway Department budget was the largest, it was the only department whose budget could be reduced while making a significant difference to the overall county budget. Without a property tax increase, Gust warned of cuts to county personnel and the Sheriff’s Office.
Kant said the road and bridge levy and opt-out, but especially both combined, would be “excessive.”
“I hope you do nothing,” Kant said.
Elaine Garry said she’s thankful for the County Commission coming out to provide education on county finances and that she trusts the commissioners to make the best decision on the issue.
“Educating more people on what these challenges are is what’s going to help us find a solution that’s going to work for all of us,” Garry said. “This is not an easy answer, here. I couldn’t tell you what I want them to cut, because I want them to extend the recreational trail further. I want them to help us with water quality issues on Lake Madison, yet their challenge is keeping the roads in a condition we can all drive on.”
Doug Jerlow, who attended the meeting, said afterward that he supported the idea of a property tax increase and leaned toward an opt-out, which could generate more funds. He said learning about the state of county finances was “eye-opening.”
“No one likes to pay taxes. Everyone wants someone else to pay taxes. The good taxes are the ones people don’t have to pay,” he said. “We’re going to have to get together to keep everyone happy, to some degree.”
