2015 Preliminary Levy

Each year the city works on a budget starting in June or July for the following year.  A budget includes both revenues and expenditures.  Expenditures are listed by department such as police and public works.  Revenues come from a number of sources such as permits and licenses and funds from other governmental units such as the state.  The largest revenue source is from property taxes which is the tax levy.  

Cities are required to certify a preliminary levy to the county each year.  The deadline for this used to be the 15^th of September.  This year the legislature modified this deadline to September 30^th.  With the certification given to the county it uses that amount to indicate the level of taxation in the notice sent to all property owners.  The notice concerns the pending tax levy and the public budget hearing to be held in late November or December.  

The Preliminary Levy certification carries another significance aspect.  It becomes the maximum amount the city can levy for taxes.  As the year progresses the city fine tunes the budget to recognize any adjustment that can be made to various line items in both revenues and expenditures.  The levy can then be adjusted downward if possible but adjusting for an increase in levy is not possible.  Setting the Preliminary Levy is important in managing the finances for the following year.

 

For 2015 it was proposed the levy be set at the same amount as that of last year.  The city has worked very hard to manage its finances and has recently paid off two debt instruments which have improved our bottom line.  With this, some funds were made available to do additional public improvements without the need for debt service.  In discussion it was felt an additional $5,000 should be included in the preliminary levy to offset an unexpected cost.  If this cost can be assumed with fine tuning the levy will be reduced however if not the funds will be available.

 

The final total Preliminary Levy for 2015 is $1,758,080 while the total budget for 2015 is proposed at $1,946,258. 

burial above ground

The City of Breezy Point owns the Pelican Woods Cemetery and Nature Trail.  This is a unique cemetery as it was set up to take advantage of the woods and lands in a park like setting with a walking trail that surrounds the cemetery property.  The cemetery has been in existence since about 2000. 

To date 92 lots have been purchased and 53 persons have been laid to rest there.  Currently the cremains to traditional burials ratio is running about 68% cremains.  This trend is increasing with a state average of 53%. With cremains there are options.  Ashes can be scattered about, they can be buried, and some people prefer a Columbiaia placement.  

The Breezy Point Cemetery Commission has wanted to establish a columbarium for some time approaching the issue about 5 years ago.  At that time funds were limited and details hadn’t been sorted out so the issue did not move forward.  However the Commission revisited the issue this year towards the establishment of a columbarium.   

A couple of proposals were received for prebuilt columbarium that is trucked to the cemetery and installed on site.  The columbarium selected is considered a 48 niche columbarium but actually has 60 niches.  It is built with 24 double occupancy spaces on each side with bonus single occupancy niches of 6 on each end making the unit a 60 niche columbarium. 

The vendor awarded the contract for this is Clearwater Stone and Columbaria of St. Cloud, MN.  The cost for the slab and unit combined is $10,900.  Some additional installation costs will be incurred. It is anticipated that the columbarium will be available around the end of October of 2014.  Niche sales will commence shortly before installation.