Annexing means city gains some, loses some

Talk about it

A February annexation of about 325 acres into Dickinson city limits could mean higher taxes for some, while others face lost tax revenue that could be replaced by city funds.

Stark County presently collects about $91,000 in property taxes per year from all entities within the annexed area, said City Administrator Shawn Kessel.

After the annexation, the county will lose about $16,200 in tax revenue earmarked for services and the city will gain about $41,000 in revenue, Kessel said.

While some entities, such as Dickinson Theodore Roosevelt Regional Airport, will lose county tax revenue, it will gain city tax revenue.

The county can no longer collect “pass-through” dollars for the Dickinson Theodore Roosevelt Regional Airport which was about $340 per year.

“They (the county) collected the dollars and then wrote a check to the airport for them so they weren’t able to apply those or use them in other ways,” Kessel said. “We have the same kind of arrangement where we collect a certain amount of mills for the airport and then we cut them a check and send it to them.”

County weed control garnered about $1,600 per year. “We as a city have engaged the county to provide weed spraying in the city limits so that being the case, some of those dollars continue to be revenue for the county, but we haven’t negotiated that contract yet, but that exists today,” Kessel said.

The county distributes about $1,600 in tax revenue to the Dickinson Area Public Library to support operations of a Bookmobile, Kessel said.

“We obviously support the operations of the library with city funds so I can’t tell you that it’ll be a direct dollar for dollar loss to the library,” Kessel said. “I don’t expect that, but it’s a budgetary decision that the commission will have to make.”

The county will lose about $8,600 in road maintenance funds, but the city will take over roads there, Kessel said.

“They’ll lose that revenue but they also lose the expense of having to maintain the roads because the city has taken those over and we’ll be the ones providing the maintenance on the road system,” Kessel said.

The Dickinson Rural Fire Department will lose about $4,400 but the city is attempting to provide temporary relief to that. Until the annexed area has infrastructure such as fire hydrants, the city is working on a solution.

“We are working with the Rural Fire Department to engage them in an automatic aid agreement and that automatic aid agreement would return dollar for dollar what they can’t charge there until the city has infrastructure that would support a full city response,” Kessel said.

Several businesses oppose the annexation and are concerned with increased taxes.

“We know our taxes are going to go up and they’ve given us a rough idea that it’ll be at least 25 percent, but we don’t have a hard figure,” said Bill Gion, human resource manager and financial officer for Wyoming Casing Service, Inc., a business in the annexation area.

During an October City Commission meeting, Mayor Dennis Johnson said the city’s goal “is to have the city grow in an orderly, fine manner.”

Kessel will address county commissioners at 9:45 a.m. Tuesday at the Courthouse.

Tags: stark county, news, annexation, dickinson, taxes