CITY OF CROOKSTON MOVING FORWARD WITH 8% TAX LEVY INCREASE FOR 2022 BUDGET

The Crookston Ways & Means Committee met on Monday night inside the City Hall Council Chambers to discuss the 2022 budget. The preliminary 2022 tax levy for the City of Crookston was set at 10% back on September 13. Since then, the City of Crookston has been working on ways to lower the tax levy.

Tonight, the city brought the committee a proposed budget that would set the tax levy at an 8% increase for 2022. After a lengthy discussion, the committee agreed on allowing the city to move forward and begin preparing the 2022 budget with an 8% tax levy increase.

City Administrator Amy Finch discussed some critical changes made to the overall budget to get it down to an 8% tax levy increase. “We looked at projects that were scheduled for this budget and began cutting there,” said Finch. “The Police Department and Fire Department each had some things in their budget that we could phase or push back, so that saved us some money. Additionally, we had scheduled pulling $250,000 from our reserves, and we bumped that up to $290,000. So that $40,000 along with the money from the police and fire departments made up the main contributions in getting us down near that 8%.”

Finch also gave an example of how the proposed budget would roughly affect taxpayers. “On a $150,000 residential homestead, an 8% levy increase would be looking at a total amount of $770 per year on the city’s share of taxes,” said Finch. “It isn’t an increase of $770 for this upcoming year, but rather the total. If you break that down into a monthly figure, it comes out to around $65.”

The estimates from the 2021 tax levy compared to the estimated 2022 tax levy at 8% can be found below. The increase in taxes with the 2022 tax levy at 8% for residential homeowners will only go up slightly. 

l Homestead Value	2021 annual estimate	2022 8% annual	annual difference		2021 monthly estimate	2022 8% monthly	monthly difference
100,000	414.48	441.41	26.93		34.54	36.78	2.24
150,000	729.27	776.65	47.38		60.77	64.72	3.95
200,000	1,044.06	1,111.89	67.83		87.00	92.66	5.65

 

A concern from some committee members before making a final decision and approving the tax levy is still not having actuals from the 2021 budget to compare for the upcoming year. Committee member Steve Erickson expressed his opinion on why it would be valuable to have that information throughout the budgeting process. “I think you have to have all the information in front of you if you’re going to do a budget,” said Erickson. “It’s tough to budget without the information to make decisions, and this is taxpayer money we’re dealing with. People in the public need to know and deserve to know where their money is going, and we need to strive to have those actuals completed sooner in the future.”

Finch believes the timeline to get the actuals completed before a final decision is needed from committee members is reasonable. The hope is the entries from the past year can be complete by December 1, giving Council members enough time to review them before making a final decision on December 13 at the truth in taxation hearing.

Finch also mentioned she does not believe going below an 8% increase is attainable for this upcoming year. “We know we’re in a correcting year, and we have some changes to make and need to get up to par,” said Finch. “This 8% will help us do that, and we will run as lean as we can, but there are unknowns out there with costs going up. The best we can do is an estimate for where we think will be and what will cover our budget for the next year.”

One other suggestion discussed and raised by council member Tom Vedbraaten was asking if federal dollars could be used to help lower the tax levy this year. While it would reduce the levy, Finch and city staff have advised against going this route because it is a one-time solution and could set the budget back in years to come.

Finch explained what will happen moving forward now that a consensus has been reached. “The truth in taxation hearing has been set for December 13,” said Finch. “We only have one more meeting before that meeting, and we will need to move quickly to get a finalized budget in place. What the Ways & Means committee did tonight was not providing a final vote, but rather preparing and finalizing our documents for the truth in taxation hearing as if the budget will be set at 8% so we can prepare that for the public.”

Finch is pleased with the timeline and believes it is enough time to adequately prepare. The final budget will need to be approved on December 13 so it can be before the City Council at their final meeting of the year on December 27.

The 2022 budget proposal worksheet at an 8% increase and estimates for how it will affect the taxpayers can be found below. All amounts are still estimates at this time.