Last week the Wright County Commissioners approved a property tax abatement on a piece of land in Monticello, for a new 98 room hotel/restaurant in the amount of $375,000 of county taxes over ten years.
Commissioner Vetsch stated the county residents will benefit by increasing the county tax capacity. Vetsch also stated the county would make up for what it loses in tax dollars in “Local Option Sales Tax” (LOST) alone. The LOST funds are monies that help pay for county highway projects.
This begs the question-if county residents were told just a few years ago that we needed LOST tax funding ear-marked for highway projects, why are they now going to be diverted into other purposes?
Also-how does this tax abatement help the existing and competing hotel/restaurants and county taxpayers who are actually funding the abatement? Local government used to be considered fiscally responsible, but it now looks more like the State and Federal mismanagement of taxpayer dollars.
Richard Naaktgeboren
Corinna Township