The Polk County Commissioners on Tuesday set the preliminary levy at 5.5 percent intending to get it down between 3 to 3.5 percent before the Truth in Taxation meeting at 6:00 p.m. on December 3.
Polk County Administrator Chuck Whiting said he is confident the final budget will come in significantly lower, but the preliminary levy includes a little padding in case there is an Enbridge settlement. “I’m pretty sure we won’t stay anywhere near that when we get the final levy comes,” said Whiting. “Our target is always the 3-3.5 percent. There are some unknowns that we still have to deal with in the fall year. Basically, from the boards perspective, it may sound high, and it is historically, at least in recent years. It gives us a little padding if we have to deal with first the Enbridge settlement that may be coming by the first of the year. We want to make sure we aren’t cutting off our ability to deal with that. Second, there are a number of capital items, and we’re looking at ways of dealing with that probably through debt issuance. The choice then when we finalize the budget is due, we do a levy, use fund balance, or do we make more cuts. I’m in the process of doing several cuts so I’m pretty confident I can get the board a budget that is underneath that.”
The 5.5 percent preliminary levy would equal $1,291,043 of new property tax levy. Each half percent reduction would reduce that amount by about $117,500. Whiting told the board that he likes to take a different approach when looking at the budget to keep the county up to date. “A couple of things that always have come into the budget just under the radar historically are now on my radar,” said Whiting. “I’m dealing with those with some of the non-county entities that we either provide revenue for services or make direct payments to for supplementing their work. And I’ve given them some notice, and there have been some discussions about it. There are other issues that we have. Personnel issues, staffing – I have a union contract to negotiate between now and hopefully first of the year, but that may go beyond the first of the year. Those are the unknown things that we have left to do. Usually, about mid-October the budget takes shape, and we know what’s there and what isn’t. I think the comments that I was making was trying to look at everything and make sure we’re not beholden to past decisions that preclude us from looking at changing priorities or a different course of action that may be more relevant. As the administrator, I try to keep us nimble as an organization so we can respond to the changes we see in Polk County. We’re going through that in some areas, and in some areas, we don’t. But there are always new ways and better ways of doing things, and I want to be able to do those without being captive to something that might be out of date.”
In addition to setting the preliminary levy, the Board of Commissioners also agreed to enter a contract with Enterprise to lease vehicles for the county, similar to the lease the Sheriff’s Office began in August. The current levy included of purchasing the vehicles and the lease should positively impact the levy by lowering the amount of money budgeted for vehicles although exact figures won’t be known until the vehicles being leased are finalized explained Whiting. “We think there are some cost advantages to that,” said Whiting. “There is certainly some ease to acquiring vehicles and disposing of vehicles. They turn over a little bit easier. Enterprise takes care of a lot of that for us, so I don’t have to have staff spending time at that. They are working with several counties with some pretty good results – we’re watching those. A few weeks ago, we gave the go-ahead to do sheriff vehicles through Enterprise. They are separate for two reasons. One is because the Sheriff is elected, but the County board still approves it. The second was to get the orders in for the new Tahoe because they all happen at once for every sheriff and police department. Today, we were dealing with the rest of the county departments, four of them, that do vehicle acquisition – highway, facilities, environmental services, and social services. There may be 15 vehicles were turning over, that should be less expensive than outright purchasing vehicles for 2020.”
The board also approve the final plat for the Hideaway Cove second addition, a county ditch maintenance request for County Ditch 86 in Section 7 of Scandia Township, approved a used water truck purchase for $8,460 for the landfill, and issued a declaration for abatement of a residence in rural Fosston that was a drug lab for methamphetamine. The board also accepted a grant for $5,277 from the Department of Natural Resources for off-highway enforcement and received $600 in donations to the Critical Incident Stress Management team. They also approved the Sheriff’s Office to gift a 2007 Chevy 2500 to another first responding agency as part of fleet downsizing. The truck was initially donated to the county in 2012 by Enbridge.
On the consent agenda the board approved auditor warrants, the September 17 and 18 meeting minutes, a payment of $45.00 to Veterans Warrior Foundation in Grand Forks for counseling services, and a payment of $892.65 to Larry Orvik, County Attorney’s Office, for lodging, meal, and mileage expenses for the 2019 Criminal Justice Institute in Minneapolis.
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