The Marshall County Council rejected the adoption of a couple of new fees during its meeting Monday.
The first of these was the personal property service fee. Due to changes in state law, personal property tax forms that have an acquisition cost of under $20,000 will get an automatic exemption. That means Marshall County would lose around $77,600. However, counties are now allowed to add a fee of up to $50 to make up for that loss. According to estimates done by the Assessor’s Office, a $25 fee would bring in less than $40,000 in the best case scenario.
The second proposed fee was the heritage barn application fee. According to a recently-updated state law, barns that are no longer used for agricultural or commercial activities can be exempt from taxes. Again, counties can make up some of that money by adding a fee of up to $50.
However, the money raised by the two proposed fees wouldn’t go directly to the county. The personal property service fee would be distributed the same way as the taxes it would replace, and the heritage barn application fee would go to local fire and police departments. Council members expressed concern that the county would have to go through the trouble of implementing and collecting the fees, with little if any of that money going to pay for that expense.
They voted unanimously not to enact either fee ordinance.
