Shannon Fiecke of the Shakopee Valley News reports:

After three hard-fought attempts to get on the Scott County Board of Commissioners, Tom Wolf is still determined.

In fact, this time, he said with confidence, he will win.

In 2004, Wolf won a primary battle, but he went on to lose the general election by 272 votes to incumbent Commissioner Bob Vogel of Elko New Market. With Vogel not seeking re-election, Wolf now will face two first-time candidates in the Sept. 9 primary in Commissioner District 2.

His mantra last election is the same as it is now: “We have to hold the line on taxes.”

Wolf described county spending as “out of control” in his literature, and he said residents are to the breaking point and can’t continue to pay the double-digit tax hikes of the past that outpaced taxpayers’ wage increases.

“People are hurting,” said Wolf, a former financial adviser who quit his job with American Express four years ago to stay at home with his four boys.

Wolf, 44, has always lived in or near Scott County, having grown up in Sand Creek Township and now residing with his family in Savage.

In previous campaigns, Wolf railed against county spending, even describing his former opponent as liberal. This characterization may seem odd to some, considering Vogel is a bank president and an active Republican who is viewed by many as fiscally conservative, parting ways with the county board to oppose a recent purchase park purchase in Cedar Lake Township.

Wolf said Vogel is the most conservative member of the board, but he was still part of a board that approved large tax increases, which Wolf views as liberal.

Taxes on his home have more than doubled since 2003, Wolf said. He said he believes the county has overassessed properties in the past, in part to drive up the tax base.

The county, however, has long maintained that property values are assessed to be as accurate as possible and that it would be penalized by the state if found to deviate too high or too low from the value of sold properties.

How would the county have paid for all the services for its growing population without such property tax increases?

Wolf said he proposed four years ago the creation of an occupancy fee to make new residents pay for the assessed value of their newly constructed home on their first property tax statement, instead of the lower rate which is based on just the land value.

Wolf said it’s imperative that the county determine its needs versus wants (he would put police and good roads in the first category, parks in the second), try to reduce any redundancies and look at every possible area to make cuts.

He said he thinks employee salary increases, which were raised to be on target with those in other counties, were excessive.

Wolf said he supports putting more money into roads, but he disagrees with the new countywide $5 wheelage tax (which is paid along with the annual motor vehicle registration fee), which he considers as another avenue of taxation that could be heavily raised in the future.

If the county can’t afford to operate the parkland it purchases (it has put much property into reserves for future operation), it shouldn’t be buying the land, Wolf said. If the county can’t afford to operate them immediately, he doesn’t think it will necessarily be able to do so in the future, even with a bigger population.

Wolf said the county has enough parkland and doesn’t need anymore. He disagreed with the purchase of Cedar Lake Farm and Day Resort, which required a loan. He said if the land had been privately developed, it would have generated a lot of property taxes.

“That’s a lot of dough,” he said of potential lakeshore home property taxes.

He is supportive of the county’s latest comprehensive land use plan, which designates which rural portions of the county will or won’t eventually urbanize, laying out new standards for interim development.

Wolf said the comp plan has something for everybody, agricultural, urban, and smaller rural lots.

“We’ve got to have a mix,” he said.

Wolf said he thinks local government officials have overly blamed their financial troubles on cuts in aid from the state.

To keep taxes low, Wolf said, the county must also examine whether there are too many middle managers and also whether it should be doing everything it is mandated to provide by the state and federal government.

He said the choices facing the next county board will not be easy.

“Whoever gets elected will be in a tough spot,” he said. “This guy might be walking into a minefield.”

Shannon Fiecke is a staff writer for the Shakopee Valley News. She can be reached at sfiecke@swpub.com.