December 21, 2024

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Township Clerks

2025

On December 12, 2024, a letter was sent out to all 39 township clerks.  The letter contained the information found in items 1 & 2.  The content after that is general information.  Check back often, more will be added as it becomes available.

Township Clerks – preparing for 2025 meetings and levy decisions:

  1. The 2025 base / general levy decisions are based on the amount of taxes requested the prior year.  This file contains the levies approved by the SD-Department of Revenue.  Click Pay 2025 All Districts (excluding schools) Property Taxes (you’ll see the County, Cities, Townships, Secondary Roads, Fire District)
    • The base levy can be increased by the CPI (Consumer Price Index) and the grown within the district.  The total of these two increases is then applied to the existing (current) request as shown in dollars.
    • For example:  If Township X requested $5,000 in the current year, the levy for the following year is:
      • $5,000 times (CPI & Growth percentages) 3.05% (for this illustration) which equals $153.
        • $5,000 * 3.05% = $153.00
        • $5,000 + $153.00 = $5,153.00 for the new base / general request.
        • The percentage of growth & cpi is not applied to the mill levy, only the monetary request.
  2. In December 2024 the SD-Department of Revenue made it clear they will not validate levy requests which are not clearly illustrated in the minutes of the annual meeting.  This means that township supervisor boards (Chairman, Supervisor 1 and Supervisor 2) must move, second and pass a levy request for:
    1. The Base / General levy (decided by the 3 supervisors)
    2. A resolution to support a Secondary Road and Bridge Levy (eligible voters present at the annual meeting may vote)
    3. To use any portion of an existing opt out (no publication is needed for an existing opt out to be used)
    4. A resolution to support a new, non-preexisting opt out (which must be published)

The levy setting portion of your minutes might look as follows:

  • It was moved by John Doe, seconded by JQ Public, passed, to apply the CPI and any growth to the current year’s levy amount of $5,213.  This would be $5,213 + the percentage of CPI & growth.
  • It was moved by JQ Public, seconded by John Doe, passed, to use $5,000 of the existing opt out authority.
  • It was moved by John Doe, seconded by JQ Public, passed, to adopt resolution 2025.01 implementing an additional opt out (see separate, attached, resolution) for an additional $5,000 per year for the next 10 years.
  • It was moved by John Doe, Seconded by JQ Public, passed by majority of eligible voters present, to impose a Secondary Road levy in the amount of 10,000 for taxes payable in 2026.

By clearly defining the use of each property tax levy, there should be no question as to the supervisor’s intent on what to levy upon the properties in the township.

It is also very important that township report their mileage accurately.  This mileage report is used when dividing up / apportioning motor vehicle, fuel taxes and dealer fees.  The miles reported need to meet statutory requirements for inclusion.  This would be full maintenance and minimum maintenance roads (that should have appropriate signage).  Unimproved roadways or roadways maintained by others should not be counted.  Great care should be taken when reporting boarder roadways so that the two districts sharing the roadway only report their actual responsibility.

The Hand County Assessor’s Office and the Auditor’s Office will again be hosting a “township workshop” for Hand County township Clerks and Treasurers.  Supervisors may also attend should they wish.  The current plan is to hold this workshop somewhere in the first two full weeks of February ahead of your annual February meeting where you prepare for the Annual Meeting on March 4, 2025.

2024

Township Clerks can download their forms from the 2024 information.  As things change, I will update the forms as needed.

  • MINUTES (They are extremely important)
    • For each type of levy your township utilizes, a separate notation should be in your minutes.  I suggest a paragraph for the general (base) levy, a paragraph of the opt-out levy and a paragraph for the resolution (in full text) for the road and bridge levy.

2024 values and growth to calculate the 2025 payable “BASE / General taxes”.

This link will provide you with a report produced from the SD-DOR property tax portal from data submitted by the assessor and later the auditor.  You can use this information to calculate your township’s property base or general taxes.  It doesn’t pertain to opt-outs which are limited to a fixed dollar amount set by the township board of supervisors.  It also does not pertain to the road and bridge levy as that too is set by the township board of supervisors and only during the annual meeting.

Steps, using Alden Township as the illustration.

  1.  Combine the state’s CPI percentage (3% in 2024) and the township’s growth percentage (0.05%) to get 3.05%.
  2.  This 3.05% is the amount a district can raise their levy (in dollars) without having to opt-out of the tax limitations.
  3.  From the report (linked above), use the total value of property, in this example, that is $38,286,484, as it will be need in the formula later.
  4. Using the link above, from the March meeting, locate your township’s levy amount (in dollars), in this case, the general / base levy was $6,934.14.  Do not use the opt-out or road & bridge levy dollars in your formula.
  5. Take the value in line 4 ($6,934.14) times the 3.05% from line 1 to get the new base for 2025 (payable taxes).  In this case, that is $6,934.14 * 3.05% ($211.491) to get $7,145.631, rounded to $7146.  This is your 2025 base.
  6. The levy is then calculated by taking base / general levy request ($7,146) divided by the value ($38,286,484) times 1,000 (Mill Factor) to get the percentage of 0.1866.
  7. Mill levies are express to the third decimal point, so it will be 0.187 after rounding. The “pay 2025” general / base levy will be 0.187 per thousand which is lower than the pay 2024 base levy of 0.188 even though the township raised the base taxes by $211.
  8. Caveat:  When I calculate the tax levies, they are then submitted to the SD-Department of Revenue (DOR) who double checks them and makes sure they comply with the laws related to property taxation.