Hearing on 2013 city levy, budget Monday

An agenda is considered tentative until the government body begins the meeting and makes additions or deletions to the proposed agenda.

The council is expected to adopt the 2013 budget and levy during the regular council meeting.

The council has proposed no increase in the levy over what was collected this year from property owners in the city. The proposed levy is $2.1 million for 2013.

Falls City Councilor Cynthia Jaksa, who serves as the chair of the city’s Finance and Legislation Committee, said the council has developed a 2013 budget that will keep services and taxes as their current level.

“Nothing changed,” she told The Journal. “We have not attributed any staff that I can recall and no services have been changed.”

Jaksa said the city is maintaining its services and staff. “We are assuming that local government aid will still be frozen for next year, though we have a battle (to increase the amount) there,” she said. “But we are able to hold the levy stable in dollar terms. The city is stable.”

However, she said, the 2013 budget includes a draw down of about $158,000 from its reserves.

“We could have raised the levy by that much and not drawn down reserves at all, but because of the pressures at the local level, we thought to draw down the reserves,” she said. “Last year, we budgeted a draw down of reserves and didn’t need to because actual (numbers) came under budget.”

She said the drawn down represents a small amount of the reserve fund, which was nearly $3.2 million at the end of last year. “I expect to be close to that for the end of 2013,” she said. “So a draw down isn’t like the heaven is falling.”

Jaksa noted that the ambulance fund is covered by fees, so no revenue will allocated to it.

Jaksa said $314,000, or 15 percent of “what people will be paying on their property tax bill to the city,” will be allocated to the Falls Public Library; 11 percent to parks and recreation; 48 percent to the permanent improvement fund, which is put aside for future capital improvements; and 11 percent will go to the Falls International Airport.

A special levy of $77,840 on the property tax bill is included in the $2.1 million levy, she said.

During the regular meeting, the council is expected to hear about a taxing district established to collect money for residents in the district to fund the Bemidji airport. Bemidji City Councilor Ron Johnson has been invited to speak to the council Monday. In a related item, the council is expected to act on a resolution “supporting property tax fairness in airport funding,” according to the agenda.

Other business is expected to include renewing a trademark license for “Icebox of the Nation,” and adjusting the wage of the administrative assistant position.