6. SR 12-05-1994 - Laserfiche WebLink

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MINNEAPOLIS PUBLIC LIBRARY AND INFORM~TION CERTtR REFERENCE ONLY HISTORY DEPT. Median tax hike nine percent on average metro homes Property tax bills for owners of average-value homes went up by over 10 percent in 1994 in over one- third (36) of the 95 largest commu- nities in the metropolitan area and in less than half (12) of the 27 largest nonmetropolitan cities. Fewer com- rAies saw double-digit increases uWproperty taxes on their aver- age-value homes this year than in 1993, when 56 of the 95 largest metro area communities and 21 of the 27 largest nonmetro cities had increases of 10 percent or more. The median tax increase on average- value homes was 8.9 percent for the by Lynn Reed and Dana Schroeder metro communities and 9.7 percent for the nonmetro communities. And 1994 taxes on hypothetical $90,000 homes in these metro com- munities are highest in Waconia, which ranked second highest last year. Little Canada-last year's leader-dropped to fifth place. Duluth captures the distinction of highest tax on a 590,000 home among the 27 largest nonmetro communities. Those are findings of the 28th annual homestead property-tax sur- vey, conducted jointly this year by the Citizens League and the Min- nesota Taxpayers Association, The survey analyzes taxes for nonagri- cultural homes in the 95 cities and towns with a population of 2,500 or more in the metropolitan area and the 27 cities of 9,000 or more in nonmetropolitan Minnesota. (A primer on calculating property taxes appears on page 5.) A word of caution: This analysis is not intended to estimate taxes for a specific property. It reports the net taxes after certain property tax relief measures are applied. (See the primer on page 5 for further explanation.) The survey includes only owner-occupied homes, not rental properties, businesses, or other types of property. Taxes on these types of properties will differ from taxes on homes; the results of the survey should not be used to gauge taxes on other properties. Continued on page 6 Congestion tolls could cut some roads' traffic to 250/0 Urban auto travel grow' x- orably. Between 1949 andl e population of the Twin Cities met- ropolitan area increased 2.3-fold; person-trips by all travel modes increased over five-fold. Society appears less and less willing to respond to traffic growth by increasing road capacity. Increased ratios of traffic volume to road capacity and, with them, increased road congestion are inevitable unless something is done. by Herbert Mohring and David Anderson "Congestion pricing" is the "som tia' many economists fa 0 ~urban traffic pr ms. Our knowledge of the ects of conges- tion tolls on travel is imperfect at best. But we roughly estimate that such tolls would reduce traffic 15 August 16, 1994 to 25 percent on the Twin Cities' heavily congested roads and, hence, reciably reduce present pressures to and road capacity. . posed congestion cost in the metro area is 20.7 cents per vehi- cle-mile. Currently, fuel excises-two to three cents per vehicle-mile-are the major taxes that are approxi- mately proportional to road use. Charging anything approaching 49 cents per vehicle-mile for 1- 35W trips would, therefore, dra- We est! e these imposed con- matically increase travel costs. gestion costs he five most Car pools and buses would heavily congested ents of the become more popular. Many trips metra-area Interstate sy range not requiring peak-period depar- between 41 and 49 cents per . tures or anivals would shift out of cle-mile. At the other extreme, the e peak. Pressures would build to , imposed cost on 80 percent of the shl siness and school sched- metro area's road ne~work ~.~~~~;;t". ~~a~a .,. ~Il\~ pe*. _ than two cents a vehlcle- rrlik.l. ,; ._~.", ..1,,$ ~..~I'.;;;rg;g may 6e The average moming-peak?(';~:.';~i,'+ji ~?-~~~fr i~gJr rrl'*'~~ r;: r, ~nft f{'.,,,..;.',, -. 0; t" ...- - If ~""'...... !tJ~";z.t- MINNESOTA JOURNAL 1