Dear Minot:
City Manager Harold Stewart introduced the preliminary City budget for 2024 this week, which means the final decisions about what the budget will look like are now in the hands of the City Council.
But the countless hours of hard work by City staff and Council members to craft a responsible and needs-based budget began months ago, as we met with City staff to discuss priorities and how to operate as efficiently as possible while still maintaining the level of services our residents deserve and expect.
Some of the details:
-The proposed 2024 budget is approximately $199.6 million, an increase of 9.3 percent over 2023. The majority of the increase is appropriating funds for major infrastructure projects, including flood control and the Northwest Area Water Supply project.
-The mill levy request for 2024 is 120.71 mills, up just .63 mills from 2023.
-The property tax impact would be an additional $2.84 on every $100,000 of home value.
As a Council, we once again tasked City department heads with including only their absolute priorities and necessities. As in previous years, the Council directed department heads to keep the weight off the shoulders of the property taxpayers as much as possible.
We have done our very best to keep property taxes in check the last few years, but does that come at a cost? We heard a bit of a forecast on Monday night that the 2025 budget process will be a big lift, perhaps a bigger lift than we have ever had. We continue to be mindful of not only the 2024 budget, but what our needs as a City and as a community will look like in the years beyond 2024.
But the reality is, there are items in the budget that are unavoidable, and projects that must be funded for the sake of our community’s overall safety and success. Yet, there are many items that were requested for the 2024 budget that we simply can’t afford to do right now, and those projects have been pushed to future years.
But we have projects that need funding now. We need to protect our city from flooding, while at the same time maintaining the current flood control infrastructure so it is ready to use if we ever need it.
We need to have a stable water supply from the Missouri River system, and that means we must continue to push forward with completing the Northwest Area Water Supply project. It’s essential for Minot and the surrounding region to survive and grow, and the completion of NAWS grows closer every year.
We must continue to fund our road maintenance efforts, which we’ve done in the 2024 budget by allocating $8 million. That doesn’t necessarily help us reduce the roughly $12 million backlog, but it does allow us to keep pace with maintaining our road system.
We need to retain City staff members, and that costs money. We cannot be a training ground for other cities, counties, and private businesses. We have a good, strong team here at the City. Constantly hiring and training is time-consuming and costly; recruiting and training costs far more than simply retaining our already qualified staff members.
Some aspects of our budget are essentially out of our control. For instance, state law requires our assessed values to be between 90 and 95 percent of market value, so as market demand and value increases, so does the assessed value of property in our community.
The council spends the better part of six to nine months meeting with staff members and department heads on budget direction. We tour the City departments to see their needs with our own eyes. I am proud of the diverse group we have on the council and the variety of vision and perspective each member brings to this process.
The proposed 2024 budget can be found on the City website: https://www.minotnd.gov/ArchiveCenter/ViewFile/Item/648.
A public hearing on the budget is scheduled for the Sept. 18 City Council meeting, which begins at 5:30 p.m. in City Council chambers. If you want to share your opinion with Council members, you can do it at that meeting or by contacting us through email or a phone call. Our contact information can be found here: https://www.minotnd.gov/252/City-Council.
We want your input. Our system of government works best when residents are engaged and active with their elected leaders. I support respectful, thoughtful, solution-based engagement. Does the council know everything? Absolutely not, but we work very hard for you. We are all taxpayers and want to get the biggest bang for our buck.
However, the City is not insulated from what is happening in our world. If fuel costs go up for you, you can bet they are hitting the City, too. If you’re a business owner and you are having to increase wages to attract talent, that doesn’t end at the doors to City Hall. Do I like what is happening? No. But we simply cannot ignore the fact that costs are going up. We must respond in a responsible manner, and I believe we’ve done that in the 2024 budget.
You can find more about what’s happening at the City of Minot at minotnd.org, or find us on Facebook and Twitter. We’d also encourage you to sign up for our monthly electronic newsletter on our website.