Proposed city budget holds the line on tax levy

The City of Le Mars is working to keep the tax levy at its current level in the proposed 2011 budget.

The $16.1 million budget with $5.5 million in the general fund is similar to the current fiscal year 2010 budget of $15.9 million, Assistant City Administrator Bill Cole said.

Proposed spending for the coming year is allowing the city to retain the current $13.75 levy per taxable $1,000 for the third year.

With residential rollback figured in, the owner of a home valued at $100,000 will be paying city property taxes of $645 if the budget proposal is approved as present.

The tax figure is up slightly from last year's $627 because of the state-ordered property tax rollback numbers, Cole said.

Keeping the city levy at its present level will give the city approximately $4 million in property tax revenue compared to $3,978,000 in FY 2010, providing a $57,000 tax revenue increase useable in general fund tax dollars.

The ability to come up with a balanced budget for FY 2011 is "a direct reflection" of the efforts of city department heads, city employees and the council to keep spending in line for the coming year, according to Cole.

The proposed capital improvement portion of the FY 2011 budget is $742,000.

"We realize that this is a pretty slim amount to have set for either capital or equipment replacement," Cole said. "There's always the concern of equipment breakdown as well as needed building improvement, but the various departments feel this is a workable capital improvement list."

Cole commended department heads for responding to the city staff's request to trim 10 percent from their expense budgets, trimming costs they could control like utilities, supplies or telephone usage.

"These individuals worked very hard to do this and it helped a great deal in our budget preparation," he said. "It's all been a joint effort to get to this point with their cooperation as well as that of all our committees and boards."

Council Member Rex Knapp, a member of the city's Finance Committee, commended the department heads' work to keep the budget in line

Fellow Finance Committee Member John Rexwinkel added that he, too, recognized sacrifices made by the departments in order to meet the request to cut their spending 10 percent.

The budget planning procedure "was not taken lightly" Mayor Dick Kirchoff said, extending thanks to all involved in the process.

Cole added that the city currently has only 55 full-time positions, which impacts the budget.

"This is the lowest number of full-time positions since 2004," Cole pointed out. "I feel, however, we're continuing to give good service to our community, and with less people."

A public budget workshop, open to the public, is scheduled for 4 p.m. to 5:30 p.m. Jan. 26 at the City Hall.

Final budget discussions will follow during regular sessions of the city council in February.