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9.e) Miron Valuations LTRApril 15, 2014 Honorable Fran Miron Commissioner, Washington County P.O. Box 6 Stillwater, MN 55082-0006 Dear Commissioner Miron, The City Council of the City of Scandia is very displeased with the "yo-yo" effect of estimated market values on our property owners. We are requesting Washington County look into this and make adjustments to their process of evaluating properties so our taxpayers are not unnecessarily burdened. 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 the 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. We'd like to invite you to our May 7t", 6:30p.m. work session to discuss this further. 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, Randall Simonson Mayor, City of Scandia