by Dennis Dalman
editor@thenewsleaders.com
A preliminary budget for the City of Sartell might require a tax increase of about 1.13 percent in the year 2017 if the city council passes the final budget in a council meeting in December.
At its Sept. 12 meeting, the council members reviewed a preliminary budget presented by Sartell City Administrator Mary Degiovanni. The budget for 2017, she said, is nearly flat from this year’s budget.
The 2017 general fund budget is $6,297,178. The total that will have to be levied in taxes is $5,950,149.
The extra expenses for 2017 include hiring a full-time building inspector, a job that will be filled this year; hiring a full-time engineering technical position to help reduce contracted engineering costs and provide affordable tech-level work for planning and public works; and filling a vacancy that occurred in the administrative assistant position after Judy Molitor, who held that position for years, recently retired.
Taxpayer impacts of the budget will not be known until the city receives its tax-capacity rates. That will be known by December, Degiovanni noted.
The taxes levied will be used to pay for the following:
General fund: $4,739,096.
Bernick’s Arena Abatement: $22,467.
Street Abatement: $445,000.
2008 Debt Service: $193,152.
2007 Debt Service: $315,434.
2009 Debt Service: $235,000.
Total: $5,950,149.
The council, if it wishes, could change particulars of the preliminary budget when it becomes the subject of a public hearing in December.
