Final 2023 Budget/Levy Review Before Preliminary Adoption on 9-27-22

At the July 12, 2022 budget worksession the council was presented with the 2023 General Fund budget and its effect on the tax levy.  This was the first look at the budget which included all department requests.

At the July 26, 2022 worksession the entire worksession was spent discussing options of how to fund the roads due to the additional needs of roads that were falling apart outside those currently listed in the City's 2022-2031 CIP.  The consensus at this meeting was to bring back two options: Option 1:  Annual Property Tax levy based on the average of costs for the City's 2023-2031 CIP Street Reconstructions/Overlays and the additional reconstruction needs for a period of 9 years and Option #3 (pertaining to the option # as they were presented at the July 26 meeting) which is to bond for the additional funding needs and place an annual debt service levy on the property taxes for a period of 15 years.  These numbers have been updated to reflect the removal of $750,000 from the ARPA funds that were going to be used to offset road reconstruction costs.

In regards to the ARPA funds, the $750,000 will be reflected in the General Fund budget for the respective years of 2023 and 2024.  The public works line item pertaining to street maintenance will increase an additional $375,000 from the current $200,000 to $575,000 to cover spray patching.

At the August 8, 2022 worksession staff was asked to prepare the net effect to the taxpayer if Option 3 was chosen for the roads, which is adding $1,145,607 annually to the debt service levy for the next 15 years.  Some of the other items that were requested was the additional cost for the Rec Specialist position at 29, 30, & 40 hours per week, non-discretionary items in the 2023 Proposed General Fund Budget, and if the current General Fund levy increase is 13.82% what does an increase of 8%, 10%, etc. increase look like.  These items were presented to City Council at the worksession of August 23.

After review at the August 23 worksession, the consensus of the council was to bring back the budget/levies that was presented at this worksession that included the additional $1,145,607 debt levy for pavement management projects and remove the capital items related to the police squad cameras and unmanned aerial vehicle.  The attached documents reflect the removal of these capital items and have been updated to show the net effect of the proposed levies on the taxpayer.

Preliminary adoption of the 2023 General Fund Budget and preliminary levies is scheduled at the regular City Council meeting of September 27, 2022.

Three items staff is seeking feedback on that would have an impact of the budget is as follows:
1) Temporary Snowplow Wages
2) Membership in the Mississippi River Cities & Towns Initiative
3) Cell Tower Lease

15 minutes.

Finance Director

Determination of final preliminary levy amount to be adopted at September 27, 2022 regular City Council meeting.