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WALKER - Cass County commissioners passed a resolution Tuesday to express to the state Legislature their support for existing state laws that require the state to pay counties to offset counties' loss of property tax revenue from tax exempt lands.

Some state legislators have talked of cutting or eliminating state payments in lieu of taxes to counties as part of the legislators' effort to balance their budget.

Land Commissioner Joshua Stevenson told the board he will provide legislators an information packet explaining what services the county and school districts have been providing with the PILT money.

Loss of state PILT could significantly impact Cass, because only 35 percent of the county's acreage is taxable.

Cass has 525,000 acres of taxable land, according to the assessor's office. There are 240,000 acres under water, 290,000 in the federal forest and 450,000 held as state or county managed forest land that is subject to state PILT revenue. Another 10,000 acres are exempt for other reasons such as being government or church buildings.[[In-content Ad]]

Some state PILT money the county receives supports the county general fund and county forest management, while other portions, the county shares with schools to support their general operations, Stevenson said.

Stevenson obtained board approval Tuesday to spend up to $9,500 to purchase a snowmobile for the sheriff's department to use to monitor trails and one heavy enough to haul a rescue sled the sheriff already owns to reach emergencies on and near trails.

After a lengthy discussion, the board also asked Stevenson to investigate whether snowmobile dealers might be able to offer a better price by offering a snowmobile rental.

Stevenson said he plans to use money from a state trails grant his department receives and to consolidate monitoring operations his department and the sheriff's have been doing to save personnel time and money.

The land department has been checking snowmobile trails to confirm grooming clubs report they have done. Stevenson said this cuts down on complaints from trials users, because he can report the regular club grooming schedules and confirm the grooming was done when people call the land department to complain about trail conditions.

Sheriff's deputies monitor trails for speeders and other infractions as well as providing emergency response, Stevenson said. Once the new snowmobile is purchased or rented, Stevenson said deputies will be able to monitor trail grooming at the same time they patrol for violators, saving land department staff time.

Commissioner Jeff Peterson said he was amazed to learn the county did not currently have a snowmobile large enough to pull a rescue sled.

Administrator Robert Yochum said the city of Longville used to provide a snowmobile and rescue sled with their ambulance service, but when that service became an ambulance district that North Memorial Ambulance now serves, North Memorial decline to continue the snowmobile rescue service.

The board authorized Stevenson to advertise to fill the vacant assistant land commissioner position and not to fill a forest resource manager position this year when one forest resource manager retires.

Cass will work with Minnesota DNR to obtain recorded easements for trails crossing private or timber company owned land, thus preserving the trail designations even if private properties are sold.

Second publication rights after Brainerd Dispatch.

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