Observer Report: Rice County Commissioners, 7.1.25

• CALL TO ORDER AND PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE
• PROPERTY TAX & ELECTIONS 2024 Overview: Denise Anderson
  • Tax Statements – approximately 30,000 Property Tax Statements & 30,000 Truth-in-Taxation statements were generated, tested and distributed timely (Tax Statements sent in March & TNT Notices sent in November)
  • Transfer of Ownership – staff processed paper and electronic documents to the tune of 2,157 transfer documents and 2,073 mortgages, while in compliance with return deadlines and delivering in less than 10 business days for paper and 5 business days for electronic
  • New Owner Letters – when a piece of land is sold, a courtesy Rice County Welcome Letter is sent to remind property owners to file for homestead, how to register to vote and they are provided a copy of their new tax statement (occurs all year long)
  • Late Payment Letters – sent out to each taxpayer as a courtesy to notify them that their tax payment is past due (distributed after each due date in Jun, Sep, Nov & Dec)
  • One Year Warning Letters – the letter is a courtesy notification to taxpayers and any interested party of a parcel, letter states 1 year from now this office will start forfeiture proceedings due to unpaid property taxes (sent in December of each year)
  • Property Tax Collections – collected and reconciled approximately $117 million in property taxes and implemented new remittance processing software
    • Collection rates:
      • Mobile Homes
        • 2022 50.60%
        • 2023 62.16%
        • 2024 53.58%
      • Real Estate
        • 2022 99.13%
        • 2023 99.12%
        • 2024 99.08%
  • TIF – maintain 18 districts, 233+ parcels across three cities; 2 TIF were decertified as well; also set up 1 additional district for upcoming years
  • Tax Forfeited Auction – on hold in 2024 due to Supreme Court Decision and 2024 being an election year
  • Board of Appeal & Equalization – Denise & Jody are certified members and Denise attended the June 2024 meeting
  • Agency Outreach – PTE holds quarterly meetings with Recorder’s Office and Assessor’s Office to collaborate on cross-departmental interactions
  • Ordinances – Assisted other Rice County Departments with updating the tobacco ordinance and with drafting the cannabis and hemp ordinance
  • Q&A
    • Purfeerst Q: If someone is late in paying their taxes, what is the fine?
      A: Depends on the classification. Homestead is 2%. Ag is different. 
    • Peters Q: If someone is delinquent in taxes, does it show up in Beacon (property documentation software)?
      • A: Yes
    • Hoisington Q: The mobile homes – payment rate is low. How do you recapture the unpaid property taxes?
      • A: With mobile homes, it’s a tax against the person, not the property, so we have to do a bank levy where we take the money from their bank accounts. This is the hardest part, to collect the mobile home taxes. 
• INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY: Allan Klug
  • Rice County IT Services
    • Hardware and Desktop Support – Provide general hardware and software maintenance and assistance
    • Network Services – Secure connections between sites, to the internet, and to partner locations
    • Data Services – File, application, database services; managed printing and scanning
    • Communication Services – Email, telephone, and website
    • Security – Account and rights management, firewall, network monitoring, log collection, anti-spam, antivirus, patching, etc.
    • Compliance – Assist departments with compliance and audits
    • License Management – Manage license compliance and terms of license
    • Rice Steele Dispatch – Provide IT services and onsite support for Rice Steele Dispatch
    • Project Management and Support – Provide support or management as needed of projects involving technology for county departments
  • Q&A
    • Peters: Great job on tech support for my ipad last week. Thanks. 
    • Purfeerst: Thank you for what you do. A lot of this is way above my head. Are we protected in a case where Moer county is going through?
      • A: I don’t have a lot of information on that, but what I can say is the largest risk we have is end users being tricked into using their credentials on a malicious website. The best thing we can do is have duo with two step verification, but it’s not possible to be 100% protected. (Went on to describe other strategies for protecting the county, as well.)
    • Hoinsington: Are you able to sleep at night?
      • A: Mostly!
• OUTSIDE AGENCY: Rice Steele 911
  • Wold architects representative presented an update on the Rice Steele County 911 Relocation Project 
  • Budget: $1.277 million, $117k more than initially proposed
  • Occupancy: April ‘26
  • Q&A:
    • Hoisington: It’s reassuring that you’re talking to the people that will be using the space. 

ADJOURNMENT