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CART Newsletter, November 2011
One of the most important issues before the CART team since the first of this year has been the notification to our citizenry about the issues of frac-sand mining which has been discovered, been discussed and is now being mined throughout northwestern Wisconsin and expanding southerly in our state. CART sees this as an opportunity through corporate taxation to relieve some of the financial burdens to our citizens in property tax relief. Earlier this year, Ray Johnson and myself traveled to Eveleth, MN to discuss the issues concerned with taxation on taconite mining and how it generated property tax relief to the citizens in northern Minnesota. We were hopeful that the implementation of taxation could be applied in the same areas of frac sand mining here in Wisconsin and especially here in Barron county. Our suggestion to the county was simple in that we asked our board of supervisors through the county administrator to look into property tax relief by applying tax revenues towards the education portion of our tax bills and not place any of the money in the general fund. The reason, as I said, is simple. Taxes applied to education, which is 51% of our property tax bill, would automatically lower our property taxes and give us some relief in which we all agree are way out of proportion to the fair market value of our homes and property evaluation. If the county takes taxation from mining and places it in the general fund, which will certainly be a substantial amount, it will give them the opportunity to continue worthless spending on projects and concerns that are non-beneficial to the majority of our citizenry. The county continually talks about representing the residents of Barron county in their best interests. They now have an opportunity to practice what they preach and we eagerly await the decision they will make in this regard. Our CART team plans to alert the citizens of Barron county of this concern and our position through the local media and in address to the county board as we continue to educate ourselves on the issues of this matter. We realize that there are state requirements and statutes that might impede our desires for property tax relief but we plan to leave no stone unturned on this issue as we pursue what we feel is in the best interests of our citizens. In that regard we have another concern which I have asked Ray Johnson to address in this newsletter. His comments on this current issue are important and of concern to all of us as taxpayers and follow this paragraph. Salt Storage Building The county board once again has an opportunity to save the tax payers of Barron county some of their hard earned dollars. With plans to build a new salt storage shed in 2012, they have discussed how to pay for the project and there appears to be two ways to do this. The first is to make the $900,000 cost to build the structure a 2012 budget item. If they choose this method it will raise the levy cap and the $900,000 will become a part of every budget going forward. In other words, in the next ten years they will have collected nine million dollars for a project that cost $900,000, and eighteen million over the next twenty years and on and on and on. The second plan would be to take the money from the undesignated fund balance which currently has an excess of two and a half million dollars. The county fund balance policy allows the undesignated fund balance to range from 25 to 33 percent of the years expenditures. They are currently at 48 percent which is reported as $2,500,000. Why would they consider putting it in the budget and have the taxpayers pay for a structure when there is cash on hand and why would they use this opportunity to raise the levy limit nine hundred thousand dollars for ………..ever? _________ As all of you can see from my article and Ray Johnson’s input, the county has an opportunity to act in our best interests as tax payers and provide substantial relief to our citizens by simply making the correct decision and representing all of us as they so often elude to doing in county board decisions. We will definitely keep a close watch on the decisions the county will make on these issues. Also please note that annual dues of $10.00 per member are being collected at this time for 2012. Although everyone received a credit for 2011, we have determined that we will need the additional membership fees for 2012 as we plan to spend money in advertising, promotional brochures or handout information in concern of the previous discussion items and on going research on the frac sand mining operations and tax implications to our residents. Please send your dues to Bonnie Peterson prior to Jan 31st of 2012. As always, we thank you for your support and we hope that our concerns will provide financial results benefiting all our members and the taxpayers of Barron county. Jim Simon CART - Newsletter Editor
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