By Dave Baumeister

County Correspondent

            SIOUX FALLS – “If your assessed value is at, or less, than what you think your house would sell for…DON’T CALL US!”

            That was the general message from Minnehaha County Director of Equalization Chris Lilla and Commission Chairperson Cindy Heiberger at this week’s regular Tuesday meeting.

            Lilla gave his annual presentation on the Equalization Office and stressed how much property values had increased in recent months.

            The main job of his department is to “equalize’ property values based on their assessment, which includes what similar properties in a person’s neighborhood are selling for.

            He said that the average increase for property in the county was at 18.3%, and property valuation notices would be going out this week, just ahead of the March 1 deadline.

            And while Lilla emphasizes this annually, he said he was more concerned about it this year, for two reasons.

            First, of course, are the large increases in assessed values, and second, is that like many other places, the Equalization Office is short-staffed.

            So, Lilla is worried that increased valuations will mean a large increase in calls to his office from people thinking their valuation is too high.

            But, again, Lilla put out the warning for people, after looking at their valuation, to take a moment and honestly answer the question “what would my property currently sell for.”

            If that answer is at, or less, than the valuation they just received, then even if it went up the full average 18.3% over last year, people should just accept that and not call Lilla’s office.

            At the meeting, Commissioner Jeff Barth pointed out that the valuation doesn’t have a direct effect on a person’s tax bill, anyway.

            Just because a valuation goes up 18% doesn’t mean taxes will go up the same amount.

            It was explained that taxes are based on the mill levy, which is determined by what the different departments need.

            After the various county departments request money for the next year, the budget is established, and that is how taxes are set.

            Lilla said that people who do see an 18% increase on their property probably won’t see any increase in taxes. And remember, 18.3% is just an average.

            Property valued lower than that average will probably have a lower tax bill, while the ones who see an tax increase are those who own property coming in higher than the average.

But even with an increase in the 2022 valuation, property may still be valued less than what it can sell for, Lilla said.

            “For valuation, we use an average of property over the previous three years.”

            And that means determining a 2022 value would take into consideration neighboring property values going back to 2019.

            If people want to figure out what properties in their neighborhoods have sold for since then, they can go to the “MinnEmap” at https://gis.minnehahacounty.org/minnemapviewer to learn that information.

            Once on that website, curious property value seekers need to click on an icon which looks like a stack of papers in the upper right corner. After that, they should check the fourth box from the top that reads “Real Estate Sales 2019-2021.”

By clicking on the arrow on the left, they will see boxes for each of those years. Clicking on one or all three of those boxes will reveal color-coded properties on the map that sold during those years, along with a description and the selling price.

Before Lilla was done with his presentation, Heiberger made sure to reiterate, “An increase in valuation DOES NOT mean an increase in taxes.”

            Commissioner Dean Karsky added, “This is really ‘Good News/Good News’.

            “It’s ‘good news’ because your property value has gone up, and it’s ‘good news’ because property taxes won’t go up that much.”

‘Bad bill’ in Pierre

            During the legislative update toward the end of the meeting, Commission Assistant Tyler Klatt reported on several bills in Pierre that could affect the county.

            SB 198, commissioners felt, essentially guts the state’s juvenile justice system.

            With that bill, “the state stands to lose tremendous amounts of federal and state funding, plus, there is a huge hit to juveniles,” Heiberger said. “This would destroy all positive things that have happened (in terms of the juvenile justice system.)”

            Commissioner Gerald Beninga added that SB 198 would set the state back “25 years” in dealing with juvenile crime.

            It was added that the commission has sent letters to various legislators asking them to vote against the bill when they have the chance.

            On Feb. 16, the Senate State Affairs committee voted 8 to 1 to send the bill to the senate floor. The lone vote to kill the bill was Troy Heinert (D- Brule, Buffalo, Jones, Lyman, Mellette, Todd).

            The bill was to be discussed by the senate on Feb. 17, but it was “deferred to another day,” which, as of presstime, had not been established.

            The next meeting of the Minnehaha County Commission will be at 9 a.m. Tuesday, March 1, on the second floor of the Minnehaha County Administration Building.