Pat Tepoorten
Wyoming Township ReporterWith testimony in the annexation dispute between Chisago City and Wyoming Township set to begin Monday, Nov. 8, the town board did some last minute strategizing during the course of its regular meeting Oct. 26.
Plans by the township to reserve Maranatha Church in case the Chisago City Hall proves too small were made, and a mass mailing designed to apprise township residents of the proceedings and encourage their participation was also approved.
That request came from Citizens Against Hostile Annexation who have been active in fighting the annexation request. Zoning Administrator Fred Weck estimated the cost of printing and sending a notice to all township households at roughly $750, $450 for the postage and $300 for the actual printing.
CAHA offered five to six members to take care of logistics, like retrieving postcards from the printers and adhering address labels. Jonathan Dodge said CAHA would like the notification effort to impact the township staff as minimally as possible.
The board, which was being asked to finance the mass mailing, had some initial concerns about the wording to be used on the postcards. ìIt would be best from a legal standpoint if they were neutral,î suggested Town Attorney Tom Fitzpatrick.
Supervisor Scott Walberg agreed: ìWe don't want it to come back and haunt us.î
With CAHA in agreement that the postcards would be informational in nature and not ìslantedî towards a particular point of view, the board unanimously approved the expenditure. Supervisor Roger Elmore summed up the boardís view with the comment, ìI think itís a great idea. As far as I am concerned this is the last hurrah.î
Tax impact
That last hurrah has some new ammunition as of this week.
A financial impact analysis released by the township late last week shows the impact on township and city taxes were the annexation ultimately to be approved. The figures given are meant to include that portion of property taxes dedicated to the township or the city, and do not reflect changes in other taxing entities, such as the county or school districts.
Taxes dedicated to those jurisdictions were kept constant for the purposes of the study. And, while it paints a fortuitous picture for existing city residents, it paints a far less attractive one for taxpayers in the annexation area and the remainder of township residents.
The study, which was compiled by Springsted Inc. for the township, is comprised of information gathered from township and county tax rolls and notes that the average taxable value of a residential home is $227,500. The impact on taxes of township property at that value not included in the area sought for annexation would be an 8.08 percent increase as a result of the annexation.
Were that property located in the area sought for annexation, the property taxes could rise roughly 109 percent. The only property owners that reflect a decrease in their property taxes would be existing property in the city that is not part of the disputed annexation. They would see an almost 31 percent decrease in their taxes.
In fact, property within the annexation area of virtually any value would see property tax increases above 100 percent. Partially accounting for that is taxes dedicated to city services, which is not part of township taxation.
Contrarily, all property within the existing Chisago City boundary would see significant decreases. That presumably can be accounted for through the addition of such a large amount of property to city tax rolls, thereby reducing the overall burden on individual property owners.
The water is a little murkier, however, with township property outside of the annexation zone. While all property with a value above $200,000 would see increases in the property taxes, that property which is worth $150,000 or less reflect an actual decrease in taxation.
Most notable, property worth $100,000 could see a 21 percent decrease in property taxes. According to Springstedís Jessie Hart, who was involved in creating the financial impact analysis, those decreased are based on how the state calculates tax capacity and applies homestead credits. She noted the decreases could be minimized or eliminated depending on any budget increases from the county or school districts in coming budget cycles.
Other news
In other township news, Forest Lake Mineral was granted a conditional use permit to remove sand from a ìborrow pit.î This issue had been tabled to allow the board to delve deeper into some of the issues pertaining to the permit.
A representative from Forest Lake Mineral attended the meeting and assured the board only clean fill would replace removed sand, and also indicated that the reclamation process would begin immediately after the sought after sand was removed. The board approved the three-year permit.
The hoped for report on the drainage issue at Heath Ave. was not available and, with no information available to make a decision regarding the existing outflow pipe, Street Superintendent Byron Olson encouraged the board to look more closely at Supervisor Ron Swenson's idea of installing pipe along Heath Ave. to US-8. He said the run would be for the most part a shallow cut, with only the last 500 feet or so requiring a cut of around 10 feet.
Olson was asked by Elmore if there was any chance the runoff problem would be solved by Spring. ìI can't see it,î replied Olson
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