Olmsted county holds property tax public hearing

(ABC 6 News) – It was a big turnout at the Olmsted County Government Center for Thursday’s meeting over the tax increase homeowners and commercial property owners are seeing.

Many saying they’re concerned about the increase in their taxes.

Allen Watts is a landlord here in Rochester, and he says his property taxes went up 12 percent, but his concern is that property owners aren’t the only ones that are going to feel the burden of the increase.

“Our tenant shares in the taxes so having an increase. And we actually just negotiated a lease with them and it’s going to increase their cost as well,” said Watts.

According to the county, property tax dollars are collected by the county, school district and city you live that then fund the services these entities provide. The only real control the county has in this is their budget to fund these services. The formulas that are created to assess your property are handled at the state level.

“In a way our hands are tied, we just follow the process and apply the formulas the way they are. Yes, we have conversations at the state level based on those concerns, but we cannot deviate form the rules established by state statue we just need to calculate it according to those rules,” said Olmsted County CFO Wilfredo Roman-Catala.

You can appeal your assessment, but it’s too late to do it for this year. In January every property owner will be notified by mail of their new tax rate, and can start the appeal process in March.