Anderson said the goal is to try to assess all land values to 100 percent based on last years sales, not over or below.

“What we try to do is assess all the property’s at 100 percent of market value,” he said. “That is the goal.”

Should his office not raise the assessed amount, Anderson said the state will step in and assess the city the necessary amount, something that has happened in the past.

He said looking ahead, assessed values may not change much in 2010  based on the 15 sales in the assessors office. Currently the City of Starbuck is right at the 100 percent ratio the auditor’s office tries to achieve.

Even if home values are lowered or stay the same in the future, it was reported at the meeting the city needs money to operate the city’s day-to-day operations. If the city falls short of the money needed to operate the city, then it will need to raise the general operating levy like it did this year.

When asked whether the city auditors had made suggestions in the past to raise the levy, Starbuck Mayor Milo Holte said auditors do make recommendations and had said to raise the levy more.

Though he said the city should have raised the levy more each year instead of all at once, Holte said the city tried to keep taxes low by just raising the levy 2.5 percent each year and relying on the increased values of the home to operate the city. However, he said inflation has caught up with the city in such a way it cannot delay raising the levy or raise it by a lower amount for 2009. By not raising the levy the full amount he said the city would not have enough funds to pay the bills.

“Our problem at this point is we need that revenue to pay our bills,” said Holte.

Another problem facing the city is delinquent taxes. Councilman Tom Goracke said there was $140,000 in unpaid taxes in Starbuck last year, “and we assume that is going to come into the city and it’s not and that was before any levy increases.”

One person asked whether the city felt remorse by raising the levy by 75 percent. The members of the council said they did feel bad, but made the best decisions they could with the information at hand. They also said they tried to do the best they could at keeping taxes low for everyone in the city.

After further discussion the city closed the hearing and officially accepted the 75 percent increase in the general operating levy.