County property owners see slight increase in taxes
By Ashleigh Plemper
Farmer Staff Writer
The vast majority of McKenzie County taxpayers probably got a little Christmas surprise this year when they opened their 2020 tax statements.
And that surprise is that their county taxes, with the exception of those who saw their property value increase, were about the same as last year.
“In 2019, the county portion of the tax statement was 17.95 mills. In 2020, the tax levy is 18.04 mills for the county,” says Erica Johnsrud, McKenzie County auditor/treasurer.
According to Johnsrud, the county portion of the tax payments has changed very little.
“We did have some valuation changes. So if people’s property value changed that could’ve accounted for an increase of their property tax,” Johnsrud says.
As for the 0.9 mill rise, it only accounts for the county portion, not including the mill levies for cities, school districts, townships, and other taxing entities in the county.
“There were a few adjustments made in order to have our property evaluations in the 90 to 100 percent of market value that’s required by the state,” Johnsrud says.