County property tax bills show mixed bag
The annual Christmas greetings from McLean County arrived in property owners’ mailboxes this past week. And for the largest part, most McLean County taxpayers saw a decrease in their 2009 property tax bill compared to the 2008 statement. According to Auditor Les Korgel, the decrease for most properties was due to the drop in the mill levy for local school districts. Action by the 2009 North Dakota Legislature now requires local school districts to levy a maximum of 100 mills in their general fund in exchange for additional funding from the state. This resulted in a drop in funds assessed to property taxpayers for school districts from $5,525,330.96 in 2008 to $4,145,925.75 in 2009. This is a decrease of $1,379,405.21 or 25 percent. Korgel said the decrease, though, was offset somewhat by increases in levies by the other taxing districts including the county, cities, townships and special districts. The total amount levied by all districts including special assessments in 2009 was $8,728,231.66 compared to $9,477,650.16 in 2008.
