More than 21,000 invitations have been sent and the party is on.

However, the celebration may be muted. After all, the annual Truth in Taxation hearing is usually not a place for levity.

Like death, taxes do not make people smile.

The Mower County Board of Commissioners will hold the 2008 TNT hearing at 5:30 p.m. Thursday.

This is the opportunity for taxpayers to learn what the county commissioners are proposing for the 2009 property tax levy and county budget.

Taxpayers have already received in the mail their proposed property tax statements from Mower County Auditor-Treasurer Doug Groh.

Key figures in preparing the levy and budget figures are county coordinator Craig Oscarson and county finance director Donna Welsh.

They have been conferring daily, crunching numbers, counting beans and other sundry fiscal work in preparation for Thursday’s TNT hearing.

It sounds too good to be true in these dismal economic times, but the county coordinator predicts taxpayers may hear some “good news” at the TNT hearing.

“We have been directed by the county board finance committee to reduce the proposed levy based on some new estimates on wind money,” Oscarson said, during a break in the levy/budget work Tuesday. Oscarson said he could not disclose the exact amount prior to Thursday’s hearing.

The “wind money” he mentioned is the tax revenue paid by wind energy development companies in Mower County.

By state law, the county where the projects are located, as well as the township and school districts, must share in the tax revenue.

It is a wind energy- generated windfall for the entities.

Oscarson’s “good news” is off-set by reality.

“Regardless of what we do, a number of taxpayers are still going to see some huge increases,” he went on to say. “They’re going to see huge increases, not because of what the county levies, but because of circumstances, which aren’t really a part of the budget.”

Only a year ago, there was a storm of protest from taxpayers who saw their property valuations increase and changes made in the classifications of their property, which put them in a “more expensive” classification.

“There have been some taxpayers who have had homestead credits taken away,” Oscarson said. “That is an issue beyond budgeting.”

Since the auditor-treasurer’s staff mailed the proposed property tax statements, the county coordinator — the point man for the county commissioners, who most often fields taxpayer questions — has gotten telephone calls inquiring about valuation increases, the loss of credits and tax increases. Many phone calls, he said.

“Most of the calls I’ve got were where they say higher than normal tax increases on their statements,” he said. “They were due to valuation changes or what we call the ‘shifting impact of taxes.’”

It happened a year ago, when the sudden valuation and classification changes infuriated taxpayers. The lines of protesters were long outside the office of the Mower County assessor, who became the protesting taxpayers’ target at the 2007 TNT hearing.

Just as he did then, Oscarson said anyone planning to protest valuation and classification changes at the Thursday’s TNT hearing may want to reconsider.

“Those issues really should have been addressed in May and June, when township and county Boards of Review met,” he said. “Now, it’s not part of the TNT budget hearing.”

Oscarson and Welsh will attempt to explain how the property tax process works throughout the year at Thursday’s hearing.

Oscarson admitted he will walk a fine line of decorum, when he tells frustrated taxpayers their huge tax increases may be due to something else: external factors such as valuation hikes, classification changes and school district levies or referendums.

External factors

For instance, taxpayers in the Blooming Prairie school district — a portion of which extends into northern Mower County — will see the impact of the school referendum approved in 2007.

“I know of one property whose taxes went up 200 percent,” he said. “What happened was this lady had bought a business, that had been a discontinued business for years.

“She did some massive remodeling and the property’s valued increased significantly and there was a classification change as well to commercial,” he said.

“Normally, her taxes may have gone up 12 percent, but there were all those other factors that also affected things this year. Her issue should be with the county assessor.”

Thus, Oscarson and Welsh will attempt to educate taxpayers about the resources available — court is one — to seek adjustments to their property valuations and taxes; neither of which county commissioners can themselves adjust for individuals.

Valuation and classification changes are, according to Oscarson, examples of “shifting the tax burden.”

“All those things do is shift taxes around to somebody else,” he said.

The woeful economic times — home mortgage meltdown, stock market declines, state budget deficit — won’t escape the attention of Oscarson and Welsh.

“The valuation of my property is more than I could sell my house for at this time,” he said. “That’s another point we’re going to make.”

There are more than a dozen reason property taxes increase, according to Oscarson, who said those factors will also be pointed out to the TNT audience.

And — not to be ignored — the proposed $36 million new Mower County Jail and Justice Center project.

When the commissioners approved a proposed levy in September, 3.9 percent of the increase was for general operation expenses and 17.8 percent for the jail and justice center project’s costs in 2009, 21.7 percent property tax increase.

“That number is coming down,” Oscarson predicted. “Because of the wind energy revenues, that number will be reduced because of the wind tax money we expect to receive.”

“The levy will come down … somewhat,” he concluded.

If the board accepts the recommendations of Oscarson and Welsh, that the levy can be reduced because of the anticipated increase in wind energy revenues, that will be good news for all.

“That will be a little bit of relief,” Oscarson said, “but it won’t be like Christmas.”

The TNT hearing will be held in the county commissioners’ meeting room in the lover level of the government center in downtown Austin.

Visitors are asked to use the west main entrance near the Austin-Mower County Law Enforcement Center.

Seating is limited.

Regular meeting

The Mower County Board of Commissioners will meet in regular session beginning at 1 p.m. Thursday.

Among the agenda items are an update on the final computations for the 2009 property tax levy and county budget.

Also, the commissioners are scheduled to hear from George Eilertson, Northland Securities bonding counsel, concerning the $10 million lease-purchase bond sale agreement with the Mower County Housing and Redevelopment Authority.

Mike Hanson, county highway department engineer, will advise the commissioners on the awarding of bids for the jail and justice center building pad preparations.

Groh will update the commissioners on warrant cancellations and tax-forfeited property.