The Maquoketa City Council has voted to approve a preliminary FY 02-03 Budget and Capital Improvement Plan that includes a 2.7% increase in the City's tax rate.  The Council plans to conduct its public hearing and vote on final passage of the budget and CIP at its regular Council meeting on March 4.

The Council met on February 6 as part of a presentation by the City's department heads who explained the various components of the budget:

1.) Property values for FY02-03 are expected to rise by about $5 million from last year. If the City's tax rate were left at $11.00/$1000, this would have generated about $60,000 from new growth. However, increases in wages and employee benefits alone are expected to increase by about $100,000.

Therefore, the budget proposes a 2.7% increase in the City's tax rate to $11.30 as an adjustment for inflation. The proposed increase would raise about $37,000 more in added revenue.

The department heads suggested the adjustment for inflation to try to avoid what happened last year during budget season when the Council decided to add $1.25 to the tax rate. If you wish to remain at the $11 level, you certainly can, but the effect of doing this may contribute to another large jump in the rate at a future date in order to play catch-up.

2.) The COPS grant for the officer in the school runs out in Sept. The school district and city are now required to fund the position for at least one more year on our own. With the school's current budgetary situation, it is considering opting out of program. If it does, the City, in order to keep the program going, would have to consider funding the school district's share or about $24,000. Until we know more about what the school board will officially do, the City's budget assumes that both the school and the City will comply with the commitments that were made when we applied to the COPS program.

3.) In order to try to bring more revenue into the budget, a transfer-in from the Police Pension Trust Fund was proposed. This fund can only be used for pensions, but has never been used for more than $13,000 in any budget. The $37,000 that was proposed represents 1/2 of the budgeted costs that the City must make for police officer pensions in FY 02-03.

4.) We are proposing to transfer-in a total of $50,000 from the water and wastewater utilities. This is up from the $30,000 in the current budget, but is about equal to what was transferred out to pay Peoples Gas when they billed for the City.

5.) One of the effects of our trying to bring in more revenue from other sources was to lower the amount that we need to transfer in from Road Use. The current budget transfers in $171,000. This proposed budget would transfer in about $127,000. This is also helpful to us because we are now estimated to get about $65,000 less in RUT funds in the new budget year as compared to the current budget year.

6.) The Public Works Dept's budget shows an increase mainly due to increases in wages and benefits, however, the budget includes a salt building for Public Works that is funded in thirds over 3 years, or about $6700/year. The Public Works Director is proposing to build the structure in stages in order to prevent salt from leaching into the river. The project would be pursued only if the City cannot make arrangements for salt and sand purchases from the DOT or Jackson County. If a salt containment building is pursued, the first stage would only involve the construction of a floor and retaining wall. If doing this alone would solve the problem, the last two stages of the project could be cancelled.

7.) The Administration section of the budget covers the activities of the City Hall staff, but it also includes some other activities. The main increase in this section for the new fiscal year is a shift of $10,000 for the second stage of a planning study. The first stage was listed in the Economic Development section of the current year's budget which is why that budget was lowered for FY 02-03.

The Administration section also includes other projects or donations that the Council has an interest in. For example, contributions to organizations such as the 4th of July Fireworks Fund, Operation New View, and the Jackson County Senior Center are made from here. An annual grant to the Mt Hope Cemetery is also made from this section of the budget. In the new budget, the cemetery will received a grant of $7000, up from $5000 in the current fiscal year's budget.

8.) The Building Code section of the budget was cut dramatically due to a change in the City's assumptions of how the program will be run. In the current year's budget, the City assumed that the position would be a full-time job that would require a new employee. In the proposed budget, we are assuming that the City will either train and utilize a current employee or that we will contract with a qualified individual on an "as needed" basis or both.