MARSHALL - Preliminary tax notices are being mailed out in Lyon County this week, and it looks like the biggest increases will be on farmland, said Lyon County Assessor Dean Champine.

In an informational presentation to the Lyon County Board at its regular meeting Tuesday, Champine said overall taxes on homes, rural residences and commercial property would go down next year, while taxes on agricultural land would increase. Depending on land prices and other factors like the removal of limited market value policies, Champine said the increases could be anywhere from 8 to 35 percent.

"It's going to bounce all over from parcel to parcel," Champine said.

Champine presented commissioners with tax change figures for a selection of Lyon County cities and townships. Based on proposed tax notices, taxes on residential property in Marshall would go down four to six percent next year, he said. In Tracy, the decrease would be about three to five percent and in Cottonwood the decrease would be about one to three percent.

"If you have things like new construction on a property, that changes the rate," Champine said.

Champine estimated a tax decrease of 10 to 12 percent in Balaton, due to its recent school consolidation with Tracy. The Balaton school district had agreed to lower its referendum rates to match Tracy's as part of consolidation.

County wide, Champine said, commercial property taxes would go down four to five percent.

A variety of factors, including land type and rising farmland prices, went into setting taxes for county farmland, Champine said. He gave estimates on a dozen Lyon County townships - Lake Marshall, Lynd, Monroe and Grandview Townships were at the low end of the range, with tax increases of 8 to 10 percent.

In some of those areas, Champine said, "their taxes went up last year, so this year it's not as much."

Island Lake and Coon Creek Townships were at the high end of the range, Champine said, with tax increases of 30 to 35 percent. One reason taxes jumped so sharply in some townships, he said, is because the state has phased out market value limitations on agricultural property.

With Limited Market Value, Champine said, "A lot of properties had tax values that were 30, 40 or $50,000 less than the market value."

Lyon County Auditor Paula VanOverbeke said truth in taxation notices for 2010 are being mailed out to county property owners this week. Final tax amounts can be set lower, but not higher, than that amount.

The county board also discussed an upcoming court hearing on the appointment of three members of the Lincoln Pipestone Rural Water System Board. Lyon County Administrator Loren Stomberg said LPRW has scheduled a hearing on Dec. 9 in Marshall to approve the appointment of Jerry Lonneman, Rod Spronk and Joe Weber to the water board. The three board members' terms expire at the end of the year, and in the past, the reappointment of board members has required the approval of county commissioners in all nine counties served by the water system, including Lyon, Lincoln, Murray, Redwood and Yellow Medicine Counties.

This year, Stomberg said, the Lincoln County Board has chosen not to act on the appointments, so LPRW has requested a court hearing to finalize them.

Commissioner Mark Goodenow expressed concern that LPRW appeared to be taking the issue to court instead of working with the Lincoln County board for a resolution. The Lyon County board's consensus was to bring up those concerns at the next rural water board meeting.