Supervisors decline requested tax suspension for secondary parcel after questions on SSI, primary-residence rules

The Woodbury County Board of Supervisors voted 5-0 to deny a requested tax suspension for a parcel tied to a resident receiving Supplemental Security Income (SSI) after supervisors questioned whether the lot qualified as the applicant’s primary residence.

Supervisor Mark Dietrich raised the request during consideration of the consent agenda and said he had reviewed the property and believed it was a separate, vacant lot, not the owner’s primary home. “They make you sell all of your property. They make you sell everything, unless you have somebody, a surviving spouse at home and stuff like that,” Dietrich said, describing how nursing-home rules affected an applicant he had seen previously.

Woodbury County Treasurer Tina Bertram told the board that automatic suspensions generally apply only when an…