The Crookston Ways and Means Committee met on Monday following the Truth in Taxation presentation and public hearing and further discussed the levy and budget.
Heading into Monday night, the adjusted levy was set at 24.179%. Desperately looking for ways to lower the levy, the committee considered the frustrations many community members expressed regarding the new Marketing/Events Coordinator the city plans to hire.
The city had recently budgeted for this position and paid up to $60,000 in annual salary, with $22,476 in benefits. It also allocated $70,000 for the event coordinator to use for their operating budget. In the previous Ways and Means meeting, the committee decided to ultimately use money out of the reserved funds to pay for the event coordinator’s operating budget of $70,000. After Monday’s discussion, the committee agreed to fund the entire position (including salary) from the reserved funds. The city will now not use levy dollars to support this position.
The committee also found consensus on abatements. “In the city, we budgeted $75,000 for abatements,” said City Administrator Corky Reynolds, “We have to reduce our taxes by a certain amount. When we examined that reduction, we found that it only amounted to 12- $13,000, so we now can remove $62,000 from the levy, and we didn’t have to generate or lose for those discounts. So we can add this with the marketing position and reduce within the budget funded by levy dollars the sum of $152,475.”
One percent of the levy is estimated at $30,000. With the committee finding consensus on these two items not being funded by the levy, it decreases the levy by nearly 4%, with the new (unofficial) levy being set at 19.036%.
The city has until December 28 to set the final levy and will meet again on Wednesday, December 20. Reynolds explained that over the next eight days, he and department heads will meet to find more ways to lower the levy (if any). Special city council or Ways and Means meetings may be scheduled within the next week as well.
