(Spirit Lake)– A Dickinson county supervisor is sounding the alarm over the amount of land being put into conservation in the county. Steve Clark told fellow supervisors Tuesday those acres continue to add up. He says that land comes off the tax rolls, and over time, will cause further issues for the county’s budget and property taxpayers…
“Anytime they accept highway frontage, put it into conservation, when they limit the development that also limits the role to the county as far as businesses along the highway frontage and that could end up being a big hit to the county in the future. It’s hard to stop a donor when she’s, he or she, is making a project like that available but I just want the board to be aware that there are some possible repercussions on things like that that come down in the future. You know we hear a lot from taxpayers about taxes going up. Everyone loves conservation, but they don’t realize the two are really tied together. If you take more ground out of the public’s hands and put it in government hands, the government doesn’t pay taxes.”
Clark says the impact is especially significant whenever highway frontage goes into conservation. That was the case recently with some land along a portion of Highway 71 in Okoboji.
Clark says he expressed his feelings about that at a recent meeting of the Dickinson County Conservation Board.
