WILLMAR -- Owners of commercial businesses and industries have been paying less city property tax during the past 10 years, while owners of apartments, farmland and residential properties have been paying more.
From 1995 through 2005, the city tax burden for commercial property declined from 37.82 percent to 28.88 percent and the burden for industrial property fell from 11.42 percent to 7.51 percent.
For apartments, farmland and residential property, the tax burden rose from 49.14 percent in 1995 to 63.98 percent in 2005.
The shifts were noted by City Clerk-Treasurer Kevin Halliday in his annual report to the Willmar City Council.
"When you go back every year at 10-year increments, you can see where it shifted from,'' said Halliday. "That's just the way the pie breaks down. The city -- from a tax-collecting standpoint -- will get that dollar piece of the pie no matter what. It's just a matter of where we're shifting the tax capacity and the impact.''
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Halliday said the Legislature decides how the property tax pie is divided. The challenge for staff in the city assessing department is to stay educated about the changes and enforce the law.
"I don't know if it's lobbying efforts or what really wins the system,'' he said. "But the assessing world has got more changes in it. ... There just is nothing stable, and why that is I don't know. But it's probably just from critical lobbying efforts for various groups.''
Other highlights:
- The city continued its favorable workers compensation history with one case in 2005 in which a work day was missed due to an on-the-job injury. The city had 152 full-time-equivalent positions in 2005, down from 155 in 2004. The city had no cases in 2004, one case in 2003, none in 2002, one in 2001, one in 2000 and four in 1999. Halliday attributed the favorable history to good employees and good safety programs
- A report will be made soon on the 2003 and 2004 audit of Willmar Regional Access Channel's franchise fees by the White Bear Lake firm of H.L.B.-Tautges Redpath Ltd. The firm specializes in cable franchise operations and compared the Charter and En-Tel payment schedules with the city's cable franchise agreement. "We're reviewing the findings to make certain that we agree with what Tautges-Redpath has found,'' said Halliday. WRAC collected $171,957 in fees in 2005, up from $170,792 in 2004. WRAC presented 10,567 shows in 2005, up from 8,929 in 2004.
- The difference between revenue and expenses narrowed considerably for Kandi Area Transit from 2004 to 2005. The difference fell from $102,334 in 2004 to $32,611 in 2005. Halliday said he's watching the trend. He said state grant increases are down.
