(Spencer)– The Spencer city council is winding up its budgeting process for the upcoming fiscal year.
The council reviewed the proposed budget at their meeting Monday. City Manager Dean Torreson says there will be a slight increase in the tax levy…going from $11.08 per thousand dollars of taxable valuation to $11.12…an increase of about one-third of one percent. But Torreson says individual property owners will actually see their taxes go down…thanks to a 1.2 million dollar increase in the city’s taxable valuation caused by new construction.
Torreson says Spencer is in a good financial position when compared to other communities of a similar size in the state. Torreson says it’s because Spencer has several sources of income…not just property taxes. He says of the city’s 17 million dollar operating budget, only about 20 percent, or three and-a-half million, comes from property taxes.
The additional sources of revenue include the local option sales tax, hotel/motel tax, and enterprise funds like wastewater treatment fees, landfill revenues, and solid waste collection fees.
Torreson is recommending to the Public Works Committee a dollar increase in the city’s solid waste collection fee next year. The rate has been at 10-dollars since 1990. Torreson says the dollar increase would bring in an additional 54-thousand dollars a year.
The Spencer city council will consider the budget at their March 1st meeting.
(Story from Danielle Hitchings of sister station KDWD Hot 100 in Spencer).
