MSRPO roots are planted deep in Minnesota's north
woods
MSRPO has roots that stretch way back to 1994 when a cabin owner
on Pine Island, Lake Vermilion became alarmed at rapidly rising
property tax bills.
Other property owners on the island pulled together, and began
to reach out to other seasonal property owners around the state.
MSRPO was born.
Writer Jeff Forester, whose family owned a place on Lake
Vermilion, was living in northern Minnesota writing a book about
the history of the area, a book that would be published by the
Minnesota Historical Society Press in 2005, Forest for the Trees:
How Humans Shaped the Northwoods. Forester realized that
Minnesota's ad valorum, or "at value" property tax had made
sustainable forestry on private lands nearly impossible, and that
the property tax, which views land only as a commodity to be taxed
at its perceived "highest and best use," was rapidly causing the
destruction of Minnesota's shoreline and fragmentation of its
forest lands. Forester joined the MSRPO Board in 1994.
Flash forward to today
From these humble beginnings the MSRPO has built the most
complete database of Minnesota seasonal property owners in
existence (over 120,000 property owners, segmented by legislative
voting district.)
MSRPO uses the strength of its membership to ensure that
seasonal property owners' interests are well represented at the
Minnesota legislature.
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