Sioux Falls S.D. (KELO) — Minnehaha County approved its budget for the next fiscal year. One of the things the commission showcased was a decrease in property tax levies.

The overall budget will be $131 million for next year, which is down compared to last year’s budget of $168.5 million.

According to the report, the $131 million in the budget, it includes $90 million in General Funds, $19.8 million in Highway Funds, and $3.4 million for Building Projects. The growth from FY2024 to FY2025 comes from a 3.00% increase from the Consumer Price Index and a 3.35% increase from new construction growth.

Above is a breakdown of the budget for Minnehaha County budget for Fiscal Year 2025.

According to the budget, these property tax levies total 2.970 for 2025, which is the lowest levy rate since 2012 and is a decrease of 2% compared to budget year 2024.

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A levy is taken as part of a formula against the assessed value of all the various properties within the county. A property tax levy is the total amount of money to be raised from the property tax, as set forth in the budget for the local government or tax jurisdiction.

Above is a graph showcasing the Property Tax Levies over previous years.

Susan Beaman, Finance and Budget Officer, said why there was a decline in the property tax Levies.

“You can see that decline in the levy, so even though revenues may increase, the levy is going down,” Beaman said. “We are trying to maintain services for a growing county at the same time as needs continue to increase at the same time. So our levy has gone down, a good part of that is related to market value changes as well as growth.”

Minnehaha County Commissioner, Jean Bender, said while overall levies are down individual levies could go up.

“It’s complicated because we collect the taxes for other people so your overall levy may go up reflecting what other taxing entities are doing it also just depends on the valuation of your property that’s being taxed, said Bender.

Bender said they are doing their best to the keep county’s levies down.

“Overall I hear people say you guys just raise my taxes every year and what this chart shows that at Minnehaha County we’ve tried hard to be really wise stewards of the funds we have the benefit of a growing tax base so we are able to spread our taxes over more property owners, but we have really tried to keep our levy down,” said Bender.

Minnehaha County Commissioner, Dean Karsky said the commission is committed to providing the community with vital services.

“This Levy is the lowest it’s been in 12 years and it is a result of property values increasing, adding new properties, etcetera. It would be a worse situation if property values were decreasing,” Karsky said. “We are committed to providing constituents with public safety, roads and highways, and many other vital services.”

Counties receive approximately 21% of total property tax revenues with the remainder being distributed to schools (≈54%), municipalities (≈20%), townships (≈2%), and other special taxing districts (≈3%) at rates established by those governing bodies and dependent on location.