Michael Hauke, Jr., didn’t update his LinkedIn page when he moved from Brule County to Brown to serve as our director of equalization eleven months ago.
Good thing he didn’t: he says Brown County Commissioner Rachel Kippley came to him Friday and told him resign or be fired. Hauke tells the Aberdeen American News that, yeah, he had some personnel issues, but he also says he doesn’t want to work for a county that is breaking the law by overtaxing 15 townships by a million bucks a year:
“I respect their decision to let me go,” he said during an interview Monday morning. “My problem is they’re screwing the taxpayers.”
…He said a map crafted by Brown County officials before he started adds an improper layer to the assessment of agricultural land. He said the map is designed so that farmers with land that would be likely to sell for more money pay more in property taxes.
As a result, Hauke said, the county is overassessing ag land by 18 percent — that’s more than the 100 percent the state already taxes for productivity — in Columbia, Claremont, Cambria, Putney, Riverside, Aberdeen, Bath, Henry, Groton, Warner, Gem, West Hanson, West Rondell, East Rondell and Garden Prairie townships [Shannon Marvel, “Some Ag Land Overtaxed Millions, Ex-County Official Claims,” Aberdeen American News, 2018.01.09].
Commissioner Duane Sutton says the county is following the law exactly and that the relative dearth of people challenging assessments shows the county is doing nothing wrong. Senator Al Novstrup uses the opportunity to express in confidence in past director Mary Worlie and his lack of confidence in the state’s ag land assessment model:
District 3 state Sen. Al Novstrup, R-Aberdeen, said any common sense used to determine ag land assessments went out the door when legislation approved a new way to calculate productivity in 2009.
Novstrup said it would be hard to believe that Hauke’s predecessor, Mary Worlie, would have implemented an ag land assessment system that conflicts with state law.
“I would predict that the way it was done it was done correctly,” he said. “Knowing Mary Worlie, who was a top-notch assessor, when she implemented neighborhoods I’m guessing she implemented them according to state law” [Marvel, 2018.01.09].
Hauke stirred the commission in September by asking them to switch to the office software he’d used in Brule County. Hauke said his preferred software costs less per year than the county’s current system, but the commission rejected his request, saying the training would cost too much.
The Brown County Commission will receive Hauke’s resignation letter at this morning’s meeting in Aberdeen.
Cory, I feel there is a good ole boys network in Brown County. Its a group of long time elected officials(some of them always run unopposed – republicans and democrats) that cant be questioned.
This poor soul was just another victim of the good old boys network.
Surprising that the good ol’ boys network would foist a plan that raises taxes on half the county. Do any commissioners live in the allegedly overtaxed areas? Or was this network cheesed at Hauke over other issues?
Doug, Rachel and Tom would all be affected by this.
Duane is a restaurant owner and Nancy is an accountant.
If someone is over taxed, on a system like this wouldn’t it be hard to catch? Is that why they didn’t see any complaints from anyone. Something is fishy here and Cory, I cannot put my finger on it!
Now the county says they were unaware….
With so much corruption in this state – it is hard not to go right to that possibility on this. It is very odd indeed. And for Mr Hauke, who has the experience in equalization, to make that claim that people are being overtaxed? He has to have information/evidence that would back up that claim. I would hope that commissioners would have heard him out, and for him to make his case to them.
Since I have moved to this state, I have found some interesting “attitudes” with public officials. It is either a “this is the way we’ve always done this and we ain’t changing” stance —- if a mistake/error/decision that was made by public officials gets pointed out to them, they deny or try to hide the mistake, rather than just admitting the error and correcting it —– or there is flat out corruption.
Very curious what may be going on here.
From AAN, on this morning’s commission meeting:
So can a county apply such market factors to the productivity assessment?
Marvel reports the top per-acre value in the county is $2,269. 118% of that would be $2,677. Property cannot be assessed at its market value. According to this Dept. Revenue explanation of ag assessment, “property cannot be assessed for more than its market value and must be assessed equitably in relation to other property in the county.”
Brown County is certainly violating the first criterion; is the market adjustment within the bounds of the second?
Since the GOP took control of the county commission , the change in attitude and symptoms of cronyism have been drastic. Many of the “personnel” issue, including those related to the Brown County Fair, center on the IT department. The culture that created the EB-5 and Gear Up scandals has invaded Brown County. These are not people interested in serving people, but are dedicated to imposing a political agenda.
I read the article in the Aberdeen paper and thought I would share some of my thoughts on using the NRCS soil survey for taxing purposes so instead of typing I have added a video to our You Tube channel and here is the link. I hope you enjoy.
https://youtu.be/HafvfPWFfTg
Good movie, Mr. Schaffer. It reminds me a bit about the way our old friend Mr. Gibilisco used to educate us about science.