Higher Property Taxes Coming to Lakes Area

Brainerd Lakes Area homeowners will be receiving their estimated property taxes around Thanksgiving. Many will be hard put to find anything for which to be thankful.

Crow Wing Auditor-Treasurer Loreen Borden tells KLKS News, when estimated property taxes come through next week, homeowners may see a lower estimated property value, but a higher tax, the result of the loss of the Homestead Tax Credit.

Borden says the tax credit has been replaced with the Homestead Market Value Exclusion, which she says is a complicated formula that will not replace the savings homeowners realized from the Homestead Tax Credit.

The exclusion allows a portion of each home’s market value to be excluded from its value for property tax calculations.
The Homestead Credit was scrapped last summer as the Governor and Republican legislative leaders moved to end the State government shutdown and save about $500-million from the state budget.