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 15th of September.
This year the legislature modified this deadline to September 30th. 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.
