Sherburne board sets preliminary levy at $62.7M

A preliminary 2025 property tax levy of $62,765,982 has been set by the Sherburne County Board of Commissioners in a unanimous vote on Sept. 17. That is a 3.99% increase over 2024.

The final levy will be adopted in December. It can be lower, but not higher, than the preliminary levy. Before the county board sets the final levy, a public meeting about the proposed 2025 budget will be held at 6 p.m. Dec. 5 at the Sherburne County Government Center, 13880 Business Center Drive NW, Elk River.

A number of factors are affecting the budget. In a memo to county commissioners, Sherburne County Administrator Bruce Messelt outlined these items:

• Upward pressure on personnel, material, insurance, and energy costs due to high inflation and a competitive labor market.

• Necessary staffing, programs, and activities to support the county’s population growth and provide the services requested by citizens or mandated by other governments.

• A continued investment in county parks and trails.

• Increased demand for public safety and social service programs.

Messelt said county staff will continue to look for ways to further reduce the 2025 budget and levy prior to final certification in December.

TAX BASE GROWTH IS FLATThe county’s tax base is one of the factors that impacts the budget process.

Over the last year, Messelt said there have been modest market value increases and approximately $168 million of new construction added to the county’s tax rolls.

However, he said with the closure and decommissioning of Unit 2 at the coal-fired Sherco power plant in Becker and a legislative change to the way the market value exclusion is calculated, the county’s tax base has grown less than .5% over the past year.

“This is substantially lower than each of the past 10 ten years when the county averaged over 8% annual tax base growth,” Messelt said in the memo.

Due to the legislative changes to the market value exclusion formula, many individual properties could actually see lower taxable values for taxes payable in 2025, Messelt said.

With a 3.99% property tax levy increase, estimated county property taxes for a $400,000 home would rise from $1,459 a year to $1,479 — a difference of $20, according to county estimates.

Several commissioners complimented county staff members for their hard work on the budget.

“Given the head winds that we saw this year, and the continued increase in unfunded mandates, I think the staff did yeoman’s work on getting it where it is today,” said Commissioner Andrew Hulse.

But he said that hard work doesn’t stop now.

“We’ve got to keep it going, because we’ve got a lot of hard work ahead of us to make sure that we are as absolutely efficient as possible in order to keep the levy down,” he said.