Minnesota School Districts Hopeful with New Tax Credit

The community has voiced its concern about the burden property taxes can play on agricultural land when it comes to school building bonds

GLYNDON, Minn. — In the last ten years, property taxes for Minnesota farmers have increased by 114%.

“About 60% of our total net value of a school district is in ag land,” said Bryan Thygeson, the Superintendent of the Dilworth-Glyndon-Felton school district.

A new bill is now taking some of that load off their shoulders and giving school districts an opportunity to expand education.

“This is going to provide great opportunities for growth and for educating our kids,” said Thygeson.

The community has voiced its concern about the burden property taxes can play on agricultural land when it comes to school building bonds.

“We know we want great facilities for our students and when those levies come up for a vote, that can sometimes be hard on a community when so much of it is disproportionately put on to farm properties,” said Cynthia Bauerly, the Revenue Commissioner for the state.

The DGF superintendent says there has been a ton of positive feedback.

This bill offers solutions for both farmers and schools in the state.

The need for this bill comes from the high demand of expansion within the schools.

“We are running out of space,” said Thygeson.

The credit covers 40% of property taxes paid by farmers for local education funding.

The money will now be covered by the state taking much of the burden off of the farmers.

“So next year when they start to pay those property taxes they will start to see that credit right on their bill and they’ll pay a little bit less in taxes,” said Bauerly.

This new project is just the beginning.

“We also hope that going forward as school boards and school districts look to build new facilities that this will help make it easier for people to vote in support of building those school facilities for our kids,” said Bauerly.

The tax credit is effective in the 2018 tax year.