FAIRMONT– Property owners around Martin County will have recently received their 2025 proposed property tax estimates in the mail or via email in an eNotice as they were sent out on Nov. 21.

These important documents are known as Truth in Taxation notices and give a property’s share of the proposed levy amounts that its local government– county, school district, city or township– needs in 2025 to fund its operations.

County Assessor Mike Sheplee said the notices also include the dates, times and locations of upcoming Truth in Taxation meetings, which taxpayers can attend to learn more about a government’s budget and levy.

While most governmental bodies, with the exception of townships, will be adopting their 2025 budget and levy in December, it’s important to remember that the amount provided on notices is not the actual amount residents owe.

“The actual property tax bills or statements are finalized over the next few months and mailed out in March,” Sheplee said.

County Auditor/Treasure Michael Forstner added that the notices do not include any special assessments for streets or ditches.

Speaking to why the proposed amounts are sent out, Forstner said, “it gives you a chance to review an entity’s budget, whether you agree or disagree with it. It’s a time to discuss the budgets and without doing this you don’t really know the impact of the budget on your property until you see it this way.”

He pointed out that a property owner can no longer argue the valuation of their property as the time to do that was several months ago.

Some property owners may have seen a significant change in either their property value or their property taxes. Sheplee explained the biggest factors impacting a change.

“A change in estimated market value or classification will cause the tax allocation to vary, significant levy increases in some taxing districts as well as legislative changes are impacting the tax estimates more this year than in recent years,” Sheplee said.

He went on to say that the legislative changes are perhaps the biggest driver of changes this year.

“They’re causing unusual movements to estimated taxes when comparing to last year. An increase in the Residential Homestead Market Value Exclusion creates additional excluded market value for homes valued up to $517,200, from $413,000 last year,” Sheplee said.

While Homestead Residential and Ag parcels benefit from these increased exclusions in the form of a lower tax, the effect is to shift those taxes onto other types of property including Non-Homestead residential, Commercial, Industrial and Utility and Non-Homestead Ag parcels.

“These tax shifts combined with large levy increases in some districts are resulting in significant double digit tax increases for many taxpayers,” Sheplee said. “Tax shifts ebb and flow over time, but for 2025 they are especially pronounced because of the magnitude of their increases.”

While the legislative changes are responsible for a significant amount of the change, several governmental bodies around the county are also planning large projects or improvements which also account for some of the change.

Right now, Martin County is proposing a 15.66 percent levy increase, which assumes a mid-year start on the Justice Center project financing. However, at its last meeting the Martin County Board of Commissioners discussed making some more cuts to the budget which could lower the levy to around 12.65 percent.

As it stands, a $200,000 home would pay $61; a $500,000 commercial or industrial property would pay $327 and one acre of Homestead Ag land would pay $1.95. It’s anticipated that a full year of bond financing would lead to a slight increase to these amounts in 2026.

Sheplee also spoke about the changes those in the Martin County West School District will see as a result of the project there.

“The Martin County West School District bond financing portion of the levy came in slightly under the estimates distributed at the time of voting on the project last May,” Sheplee said.

This means that a residential homestead property located in the MCW School District that is valued at $200,000 will pay $388 per year; a $250,000 commercial/industrial property will pay $962 a year and one acre of homestead ag land will pay $4.01 per year. The ag land is benefitting from the 70 percent Ag to School credit.

Sheplee said he wanted to ensure the public that the calculations are slightly under the estimates.

When looking at changes to the levy in cities and school districts throughout the county, many are facing a significant increase, some so much so that you may do a double take. The city of Ceylon is facing a proposed 26.40 percent levy increase; Granada a 20 percent levy increase; Truman School District a 114 percent levy increase and Martin County West School District a 248 percent levy increase.

Speaking to the change in percentage, Forstner said, “It shows you what the prior year budget was to their new budget and accounts for their bonding and new debt service.”

MCW actually currently has the highest levy change in the state, which is a result of the project it’s doing. The Truman and Butterfield Odin school districts are also in the top 10 with the highest levy change in the state.

“Most of the these cities (and school districts) don’t take the increases lightly. Most of them are trying to decrease it as much as they can without jeopardizing something,” Forstner said.

“For people who have questions about the county, they should call Mike (Forstner), but for the other jurisdictions, they should call their respective districts (city or school officials),” Sheplee said.

Martin County’s Truth in taxation meeting is at 6 p.m. on Dec. 3 in the Martin County Courthouse commissioner room. At that time residents are welcome to come and question the levy and budget.