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Columbus trims levy; retains school police |
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Wednesday, 05 December 2007 |
Alice Pickering
Times Area Reporter
A budget work session wrapped around both ends of the Columbus City Council meeting Nov. 28. The city is preparing for a first ever Truth in Taxation hearing scheduled Tuesday, Dec. 11.
Before this year, Columbus Township residents approved the levy at the annual meeting.
Going into the work session the proposed 2008 tax levy of $1,908,471 is a 12.9 percent increase over the 2007 levy of $1,690,412. Council members used the discussion time to find places in the budget where costs could be trimmed to bring the proposed 2008 levy closer to no more than a ten percent overall increase.
The 2007 city budget is $1,892,299; the proposed 2008 budget is $2,273,418, an increase of 20.14 percent.
Administrator Elizabeth Mursko told the council that this is a “tight budget, that’s why there is the struggle to find places to make cuts.” They are having trouble finding places to pare down expenses in a budget that is lean to begin with. City employees have full plates and there is no way to reduce staff and shift duties to other employees.
In planning for the proposed 2008 budget line items for police fund were first reduced from $247,000 to $233,000, a 5.67 percent decrease. The blacktop fund was increased from $150,845 to $168,845, an 11.93 increase. The tree fund was set to increase from $42,000 to $52,150, a 24.17 percent jump.
A big chunk increase is proposed for the transportation fund, up from $10,000 in 2007, to $50,000 for 2008. However, the increase is specifically to cover a feasibility study and planned paving projects.
Council member Denny Peterson said his goal was to make budget cuts to be certain that the levy increase was no more than 10 percent. He said his property tax bill for 2008 showed an increase of 22 percent. He did not indicate if this was his overall tax bill or the city tax increase.
Other council members had different stories. Mayor Mel Mettler commented that taxes can increase based on increases in property valuation.
Areas of interest
One item targeted by Council member Jeff Duraine was the police fund line item and the position of school resource officer. The city shares the Anoka County Deputy and attendant costs with Linwood Township.
Duraine checked with other schools and found they do not have this cost. He said this could be a place for a reduction in the police budget. He said the deputy assigned to Columbus as part of the contract police service could be a visible presence at Columbus Elementary. Council member Denny Peterson agreed.
Council member Renae Fry explained that the cost for the SRO is shared with Anoka County and Linwood because of numerous petitions and lobbying to secure this service for the two elementary schools. Once funding is lost, it would be difficult, if not impossible to recoup, she said.
There are several blacktop projects scheduled for 2008 and in terms of economy of scale the city can get a better price of materials for larger projects. The fund is healthy, according to Mursko.
One possibility is to use budget reserves to help the city meet the 2008 budget but reduce the levy requirements.
In a series of four motions, the SRO was cut from the budget, a reduction of $38,000. The vote was 3-2, with Fry and Mettler voting against the cut.
A second motion to reduce the tree fund line item by $10,000 was defeated by a vote of 3-2, with Duraine and Peterson voting in favor of the cut.
A motion to use $35,000 from the city general fund reserves to reinstate the SRO was approved by a vote of 3-2, with Durain and Peterson voting against. A motion to reduce the blacktop line item by $10,000 was approved by a vote of 5-0.
More details
The council’s reduction of $45,000 will bring the proposed 2008 tax levy to $1,863,471, close to the 10 percent increase over 2007.
Average market value of homes in Columbus increased 9.1 percent between 2006 and 2007, according to information from the Minnesota Taxpayers Association (www.mntax.org) which appeared as part of the budget workshop documents.
The same documents show the effective tax rank of Columbus residents. The tax rank is the average home value divided by average market value of homes in the community. The result is a measure of the percent of market value paid in property taxes.
In the 2007 property tax review comparisons, on average the total tax burden in Columbus places it 94 out of 113 metro communities, with an tax rate of .908 percent.
The same comparisons in the 2006 Columbus tax ranking was .941 percent and it ranked 89 out of 113 communities in the metro area. Citizen’s League of Minnesota web site (www.citizensleague.net) had similar information.
Columbus residents are invited and encouraged to attend the Truth in Taxation hearing 7 p.m., Tuesday, Dec. 11 at Columbus City Hall.
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