Carver County contrite about tax goof, but residents fuming

The Goof, as some people are calling the $189 million accounting error made by the Carver County assessor's office, is no laughing matter to Martha Laybourn, a Waconia resident who expects to pay hundreds of dollars more in property taxes next year.

The error happened in August, when a clerk at the assessor's office mistyped the value of a vacant lot in Waconia. Instead of typing in $18,900, the true value of the land, the clerk entered $189 million.

As a result, the county, the city of Waconia and the Waconia School District thought they were going to get an additional $2.5 million in property tax payments. All three jurisdictions planned their 2008 budgets accordingly. When the error was discovered last month, they had to scramble to cut millions from their budgets.

The incident has angered some taxpayers whose payments might be higher than expected, especially in the city of Waconia and the school district. Laybourn, for example, thought her taxes would drop almost 9 percent; after the goof is corrected, her taxes might go up about 2 percent.

"My taxes weren't going to go up until The Goof," said Laybourn, a nursing assistant who will be paying $216 more in taxes on her $189,000 home. "I've already tightened my belt as much as I can. I don't know how I am going to pay for this tax increase."

County's face is red

Carver County officials, who have been very apologetic about the mistake, expected some tough questions from residents after the mistake was discovered last month.

"Everybody's been great about admitting an error," said Steve Yetzer, a Waconia businessman who said he is seeing large increases to his commercial property taxes. "But it seems to me that the citizens of Waconia are the ones who are going to pay for it."

Yetzer and Laybourn were among many who questioned county, city and school officials about how it happened.

"There was a major mistake at the county, and we've scrambled to recover," Waconia Mayor Mark Schiffman said Wednesday at a City Council meeting held to discuss the matter and to pass the city's $5.4 million operating budget.

The situation has proved so confusing that Schiffman and the council ran into problems trying to adopt the budget because their numbers did not add up.

On Tuesday, the county passed $923,000 in budget cuts to account for the decrease in revenue, said Carver County Administrator Dave Hemze.

During their meeting Tuesday, county officials made their embarrassment clear. They continued that tone on Wednesday when they answered questions at the council and school board meetings.

"We goofed," County Commissioner Tim Lynch said. "We had a software program that did not catch the goof."

A small error gets big

The problem began last month when Eric Mattson and his wife, Julie, discovered that a vacant lot they bought last year near the shores of Lake Waconia was listed with market value of $189 million, making it the most valuable property in Waconia and possibly Carver County.

Mattson, 41, said he was looking at an estimated property tax bill of $2.5 million, which he thought was funny because it was such an obvious mistake.

What has county officials concerned is that the error was not caught for several months. It was discovered when Julie Mattson called to complain.

City and school officials said they questioned the county's numbers when they came out in August but were assured they were right.

The county has instituted new procedures to guard against such an error.

"The whole thing is a mess," Mayor Schiffman said. "It's confusing to everybody, us included."