Clearwater County Proposes Negative Tax Levy

Bagley, MN — At a time when county and city governments are seeing sizable tax levy increases, one local county is breaking the mold and not just minimizing the increase in taxes, but actually reducing them. Clearwater County Commissioner Mark Titera says they were able to reduce their annual county budget from $6.1 million to $5.9 million and overall reduce their tax levy approximately by 3.6%, making them perhaps the only county in the state to have a levy decrease this year. A great of that can be contributed the Enbridge pipeline construction and utility revenue.

Titera estimates that the average property owner when factoring school and city taxes as well should overall see their taxes go down this year.

And for those with ag land who may be seeing tax increases due to increases in market value, Clearwater County Assessor Terrie Johnson shared information about some of the programs they have to help reduce the tax hikes.