Local farmer says taxes not the way to go

Larry Johnson, a farmer in Kremlin spoke out against mill levies at a meeting of the Pachyderm Club at the Duck Inn Friday, saying they force property owners to bear too much of the cost of providing more county services.

The criticism comes as the Hill County Cemetery District and the Hill County Weed Control District will each ask county voters for up to four mills in the May 25 special election.

The two mill levies were among four that Hill County voters did not approve in November’s election. A fifth mill levy, for two mills for the Havre-Hill County Library, was approved.

“It can’t go on like this where the people that just own something are the people that have to pay for everything,” Johnson said.

He said his problem isn’t specifically with the two mill levies that will be on the  ballot in May, but who pays for it and how mill levies are presented to the voters.

Johnson said Hill County Weed District Supervisor Terry Turner, who was also at the talk, is a longtime friend  who runs “a top notch weed district.” The problem, Johnson said, is when Hill County and the city of Havre request mill levy increases, they are not honest about how much it will cost property owners.

When the county or city governments present how much a mill levy will cost, they present  how much it will cost the owner of a house valued at either $100,000 or $200,000. Johnson said that is a “ridiculous” way of doing it.

“I don’t know how many homes there are in Havre for sure, but let’s just look at this in perspective, and this is just one of the mills,” Johnson said. “If you have 2,000 homes (in Havre) at $200,000 and you got $10 bucks from them that is $20,000. So  $120,000 of this money is coming from somewhere else.”

He said the bulk of mill levy increases are shouldered by large landowners including farmers and large businesses.

Johnson said he has been to Beaver Creek Park twice in two years, both times for wedding receptions. He said both times he noticed vehicles with plates from outside of the area, including pickups with camping gear and one with an ATV in the back.

“And all those people I guarantee you spent the night in the park and they left Terry a real nice mess after they left,” Johnson said.

He said it is those visitors who track the weed spores into the park on their boots, wheels of their vehicles and dirty camping equipment. That makes the problem of noxious weeds not native to that area worse.

Visitors who use the park from outside the area should have to pay some kind of user fee that should then go toward combating weeds, Johnson said, adding that the cost should also be made in the price of park passes.

Johnson said the city and county should not only look toward new taxes to fund their priorities but transfer money from one department to another.

He added that often times a department that doesn’t spend its entire budget gets money taken away in the next fiscal year.

Arleen Rice, a member of the Weed District, said the decision to seek a mill levy increase was not one that she and other district members made lightly.

“It’s kind of a critical point,” she said.

Turner, she said, is applying for every grant he can get to help pay for equipment.

Havre City Council President Andrew Brekke said that people in  local government sometimes get so consumed with solving a problem that they take what seems like the easiest course of action raising taxes.

“That really is not doing our due diligence,” Brekke said.

He added that sometimes government departments have to do other things such as re-prioritize the items in their budgets.