International Falls City Council will meet in special session Monday to set a proposed levy and preliminary budget.
The meeting is scheduled to begin at 5:30 p.m. in the council chambers of the Falls Municipal Building. An agenda is considered tentative until the government body begins the meeting and makes additions or deletions to the proposed agenda.
Falls Councilor Cynthia Jaksa, who also serves as the chairwoman of the city’s Finance and Legislation Committee, said staff are considering the requests brought to the table by department heads as they develop the proposed levy and budget.
At this point, she said budget requests have come in at about $200,000 over this year’s budget. Filling all those requests could translate into about a 10-percent levy increase over the amount collected from property owners this year, she said.
However, Jaksa said, it’s not likely the city’s final levy, which must be set by Dec. 15, will show a 10-percent increase.
“I am thinking we will not go there,” she said. “I am thinking we have to go back to the table and see what we can do to reduce that amount. I would have a hard time supporting (a 10-percent levy increase) but there are four other councilors at the table.”
Instead, Jaksa said the council Monday may set the proposed levy at a 10-percent increase, and then work to reduce it. A proposed levy must be set by Sept. 15, but can be reduced until the final levy is set.
“It’s too early to say the city is raising taxes 10 percent,” she said. “I don’t think we can do that for a lot of reasons.”
The additional money requested by department heads include street projects and to back fill a full-time equivalency vacancy left by a retirement in the administrative department.
Jaksa said the city plans to restructure the administrative department and its office to make it more friendly to the public. That change could include combining duties of an administrative staff position in the police department with the vacancy in the administrative department.
And, Jaksa said, she has a hard time saying no to street projects. “It doesn’t make sense to let them fall apart,” she said. “It just costs more money down the road.”
Jaksa said she’d like to see a reasonable increase in the levy each year. In a previous year, she explained that the levy had been reduced, but the next year increased by 17 percent because of former Gov. Tim Pawlenty’s mid-year cuts to local government aid.
“It’s easier to focus and manage going out if you have a steady stream (of money) rather than bouncing back and forth,” she said. “We’ll probably set (the levy) at the maximum we need at this point and then go back and do the slogging through.”
In other city business this week, the council heard from Mayor Shawn Mason that Gov. Mark Dayton is scheduled to visit International Falls on Sept. 19 as a part of his statewide jobs tour.
Details of the visit have not been determined and are expected to include a roundtable discussion of local and regional leaders as well as tours of local businesses, said Mason.
The council also heard from Mason that a dedication program to rename the Falls International Airport terminal and field after Francis Einarson and his family has been set for 11 a.m. Oct. 1 at the airport.
The program is expected to include a ceremony, lunch and “mini-airshow” and demonstration by Ron Fagen, said Mason. The ceremony and demonstration are planned for the outdoors, weather permitting, but will be moved inside an aircraft hangar if needed.
The Einarson family are considered pioneers in the local operation of the airport and flying service in the community.
