By Logan Wells, News Director | Logan@kymnradio.net
This week, to help you understand the tax and valuation notices you received in the mail, we will be reviewing the tax rates set by local governments in December of 2024, reviewing a different government entity each day.
Stories in the Series
- Listen To More: Rice County Tax Assessor Joshua Schoen
- Monday: How Your Property Taxes Are Calculated
- Tuesday: City of Northfield’s Tax Increase Summary
- Wednesday: Northfield Public Schools Tax Increase Summary
- Thursday: City of Dundas’s Tax Levy Summary
- Friday: Rice County Tax Increase Summary
Today, we are reviewing the taxes set by the Northfield Public Schools. Unlike city or county governments, school districts are not able to set their own local property taxes. Instead, school district taxes can only be increased by referendum. Also, the Northfield School District includes more than just the city of Northfield, including the City of Dundas and several surrounding townships.
With the total market value of the school district having gone up over the last several years, district taxes had largely remained flat and even gone down over 5 years. Here’s District Director of Finance Val Mertesdorf in December to the School Board:
“And so the preliminary levy tax impact calculation was actually a reduction of your school district taxes across all categories. Because there was additional market base, but our levy didn’t go up by a percentage that exceeded that. And so most people saw a reduction in their school district taxes. Now obviously our final levy looks a little different.” [Because of the passage of the High School Renovation Referendum]. – Northfield Public Schools Director of Finance Val Mertesdorf at the 12/9/2024 School Board Meeting
This means that the school district’s tax increase is entirely driven by the High School Construction project. In November, voters opted to pass all three questions related to the high school referendum, with 10,068 voting yes for question 1 and 6,855 voting no. The money approved by voters for the school construction project can only go to the project and can not go to the general fund.
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