County tax base still on the rise

Few Carlton County taxpayers attended local boards of review to contest — or at least ask questions about — the estimated market value for the buildings and land they own. Land values continue to improve with a typical 40-acre piece valued at $1900 per acre, which is a 6.5 percent increase from last year.

The County Board of Appeal and Equalization, made up of the current county commissioners, met Monday, June 17 with only one homeowner from the city of Carlton appearing in person about his property value. Most concerned property taxpayers had come to an agreement with the Assessor’s Office before the meeting.

According to Carlton County assessor Kyle Holmes, his office mailed out 26,343 assessment notices for the 2019 cycle. Overall, Carlton County market value has increased approximately $106,146,100, which includes $27,409,400 of new-construction value. The total estimated market value for all of Carlton County for 2019 is $3.215 billion.

Most of the improved parcels increased in value from 3 percent to 5 percent except for a big rise of values in Perch Lake Township. There, land values increased approximately 18 percent and buildings rose about 20 percent in value, depending on whether a property was on water or not. This followed a trend in Cloquet and Scanlon where values had increased by about that same amount in a two-year span.

“When properties are, as in the case this year, hit with an across-the-board 5-percent increase in estimated market value, homes of higher value see their valuation in dollars jump much higher than an average local dwelling,” Holmes said during the meeting.

The supply of homes in Carlton County listed for sale and available for purchase is at an all-time low and values or prices paid are continuing to climb throughout the county, region and state in general, Holmes said, adding that there are no state-mandated changes for increases or decreases occurred this year.

The impact of the veterans exclusion continues to grow. State law requires the counties set aside veteran property or property belonging to their widows, not to be used for taxable market value. This year $40 million in value was excluded from taxation, without reimbursement from the state, shifting what Holmes called a “modest” burden to all other taxable properties in the county. This exclusion continues to climb by about $2 million per year.

More than 20,600 acres are now classified as Class C2 Managed Forest Land, property subject to forest management to ensure product supply for the area’s wood industry. Properties with this classification have a tax rate reduction of 35 percent for the acres enrolled. This again causes a shift to all other taxpayers within the county.

The single largest potential private investment in Carlton County is the proposed Line 3 construction. The new line will significantly add to the overall county tax base. At the same time, cases pending in the Minnesota tax court with Enbridge Energy, Great Lakes Gas Transmission and Lake Country Power may impact the overall taxes paid in Carlton County, by decreasing the taxes paid by those particular companies and increasing the burden on all other taxpayers.

Many of the cities and townships do not have local boards of review and are scheduled for what are called open book meetings at the assessor’s office, with the local board not in attendance. Jurisdictions using this process are Cloquet, Barnum City, Carlton, Moose Lake City, Scanlon, Wright, Automba, Mahtowa, Split Rock and Holyoke.

During the back-and-forth discussion of assessment issues, Holmes said, “Taxes in the City of Carlton are 20 percent higher than in the neighboring Twin Lakes Township. City services are covered by that extra revenue although not all homes in the city limits are hooked to water, sewer, and natural gas service.”

Holmes said this is also mainly due to the much larger tax base that Twin Lakes township enjoys, relative to the city of Carlton.