By Sara StrongRock County Auditor Treasurer Gloria Rolfs finished sending out property tax statements last week.All Rock County residents should have them by now, and will be able to see the division of where their property tax dollars are going. Rolfs said it’s too difficult and varied by specific property to generalize how the statements break down.But Luverne residents examining their statements may be a little alarmed to see their city tax portion increase by as much as 30 percent or more in some cases.Their overall bill will probably be just a slight increase, but Luverne’s line item within that total tax will appear large.The city’s budget didn’t increase by as much as its property taxes did. The city just levied more than usual to make up for what it lost in state funding.The city’s local collection was $718,031 in 2003, up from $534,000 the previous year.The city had no increases in its levies for the two previous years, however. The increase was mostly due to state funding cuts, with the actual city budget remaining almost constant. Total governmental budget for the city is about $3.5 million.The city is actually collecting from the taxpayers about what it did in 2000, which was $725,268.During the budget-setting season the city cut personnel and some services, but residents came out to say they didn’t want city operations to change much.Since 2003, management salaries are down $170,000 because of staff cuts and reorganization, for example. The city also started new fees for street lights and fire hydrants to all properties.Still, the city levied the maximum allowable by the state.That’s just what the county did as well.On the county side of the property taxes, it levied $3,485,876, the maximum allowed by the state. Even so, it is nearly $13,000 less than last year’s levy, $3,498,433.The county operates on a $10 million budget. That reflects the maximum allowable local levy of $2,686,427.The rest of the budget is state and federal funding for things such as Family Services or Rock County Highway Department, which just passes through the county.On the Luverne school line item, taxpayers may notice a decrease in their payment. Luverne schools levied $1.49 million. Again, that was the maximum levy amount allowed by the state, but it represents a decrease of $63,306 from the previous year’s levy.Other cities and townships will mean different payment breakdowns for all property taxpayers, but the forms explain the collections.
