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It's been determined that about $650,000 will be refunded to the Perham Health hospital district after the Minnesota Supreme Court decided in February that the Otter Tail County Assessor's Office was wrong to impose property taxes on Perham Health clinics in Perham, Ottertail and New York Mills.
Otter Tail County classified the clinics as commercial and, according to the court ruling, wrongly assessed property taxes on them from 2014 to 2018 after determining that the state tax exemption for hospital districts was available only to hospitals and not to clinics.
The case was discussed at the Perham Committee of the Whole meeting on Wednesday, Feb. 23.
Here's what the impact of the refunds will be on each taxing entity:
- Otter Tail County — $156,025.45
- State of Minnesota — 153,461.98
- City of Perham — $123,923.46
- City of New York Mills — $83,988.93
- Ottertail City — $5,197.53
- Perham-Dent School District — $72,070.90
- New York Mills School District — $39,501.60
- Hospital — $12,758.52
- Otter Tail County HRA — $1,243.42
- City of Perham HRA — $1,727.04.
These amounts do not include interest, according to Perham Finance Officer Patti Stokke.
City officials also discussed
the changed election districts
at the meeting. Perham is moving from State Senate District 8 to District 9 and House District 8A to 9B. This means that Perham's representatives could change in the State Legislature.
