3. Letter to County;mi s o t Pa
April 16, 2014
Honorable Fran Miron
Commissioner, Washington County
P.O. Box 6
Stillwater, MN 55082-0006
Dear Commissioner Miron,
We recently held our Local Board of Appeal and Equalization for the City of Scandia. As you
may have guessed, we had many angry residents in attendance to appeal the 2014 estimated
market valuation ("EMV") of their property by the County. We are appealing to you as our
county representative to ask the County Board to consider re-evaluating the properties of
Scandia.
In 2013, the City of Scandia had one of the most significant decreases in property valuations in
Washington County of nearly 10%. Our City Assessor tells us this is partially due to limited sales
data used by Washington County to compute values. Then this year our City is seeing on
average a 19% increase in residential property values which is the largest increase in the county
(2014 Assessment Report, Washington County, March 2014). Some properties are seeing an
increase as high as 25-30% in one year! Clearly, the recovering real estate market does not
support such a large increase in that short of a time. Providing for a longer look -back period
would help even out these drastic swings.
As you may know, many of our residents are retired and living on fixed incomes. These
dramatic increases are difficult to plan for to say the least. Additionally, such wide swings in the
valuations and resulting taxes can greatly impact many people's monthly mortgage payment as
the escrow requirements fluctuate so much from year to year.
The City Council worked diligently last year to not increase the tax levy and will continue to
examine each budget proposal closely. However, we know that the tax levy is only one part of
the equation and valuations are just as important.
Finally, our next work session is Wednesday, May 7, 6:30 pm at the Scandia Community Center.
We would greatly appreciate the opportunity to speak with you in person regarding the Scandia
14727 209i1 St. N., Scandia, Minnesota 55073
Phone (651) 433-2274 Fax (651) 433-5112 http://www.ci.scandia.mr).us
property valuations at that meeting. Please contact our City offices at 651.433.2274 to let us
know if you can attend.
Thank you for your time and attention to this matter.
Sincerely,
GCS%A�� T
Randall Simonson
Mayor, City of Scandia
cc: Commissioner Autumn Lehrke
Commissioner Lisa Weik
Commissioner Ted Bearth
Commissioner Gary Kriesel
Bruce Munneke, County Assessor