MONROE - Paying down the debt won out against lowering the tax rate Tuesday at the City of Monroe Common Council special meeting to consider the 2015 budget.
Council members voted 7-2 to approve the proposed budget and levy amount, maintaining $480,000 in the levy to pay off a debt incurred this year for purchasing two fire trucks. Chris Beer and Louis Armstrong voted against. Michael Boyce was absent.
The amount to be levied, $6.733 million, will result in a tax rate of $10.41 per $1,000 of property value. Property values totaling about $647 million were slightly lower than the estimated $648 million previously reported, according to City Administrator Phil Rath.
Under the new tax rate, the owner of a $100,000 home in the city will pay $1,041 in city taxes, $62, or 6.3 percent, more than in 2014. The owner of property valued at $150,000 will pay $1,561 in 2015 city taxes, compared to $1,469 paid in 2014, about $93 more.
Why now
The $480,000 debt payoff did not go without discussion at the meeting. Beer motioned and Armstrong seconded to remove the payoff amount. Beer maintained that it contributed to "quite a (large) percent increase" in the levy compared to last year. The 2015 levy amount is $461,000 higher, or 7.35 percent more, than the 2014 levy of $6.272 million.
Other alders said they preferred to lower the debt now to eliminate the $85,000 annual payment for the next six years while saving interest costs. Reid Stangel and Brooke Bauman noted constituents have voiced in favor of the debt payoff. Charles Koch said future reconstruction projects, such as the parking ramp and 8th Street West, will mean more borrowing.
"We can't keep adding to it (the debt)," he said. "We have to pay it off."
Tom Miller agreed, particularly about postponing the decision on repairing or replacing the parking ramp.
"We keep making the frosting on the cake look better, but the cake is rotting," he said.
Rath said this year was the "perfect storm" in combined tax bills, with other taxing entities having lowered their rates for 2015. The city's rate increase will not hit taxpayers with as much notice overall. However, Stangel and Armstrong both reject that rationality.
If the city has to raise taxes, Stangel said it should "do it regardless of what else is happening."
Beer and Armstrong's efforts to strike the $480,000 failed, 6-2.
Where city taxes go
Of the total $6.73 million in city tax revenue collected next year, about $5.68 million will go into the general fund; $888,000 will go into covering the total debt fund; $94,000 will be put toward capital projects; $58,500 will fund the airport and $10,000 will be used to offset a small portion of TID No. 7 debt.
Other revenues
The general fund revenues are expected to total $10.85 million, up 3.86 percent from $10,450 last year.
Federal and state aid and other intergovernmental revenues of $2.22 million will be down by 6.3 percent, or $148,000, next year. The city will lose out on about $240,000 of state revenues in expenditure restraint payments, in part from overspending its budget this year, when it used about $800,000 to cover surcharges for entering into the state health insurance plan for its city employees. The $800,000 was residuals the city owned when it self-insured and carried its own health insurance plan.
Expenditures total
General fund expenditures, including debt service and capital outlay, are budgeted at $10.98 million, up 5.14 percent from $10,450 last year, and leave the fund with a $134,000 deficit.
Of that amount, the city expects to spend $3.77 million for public safety, down 2.8 percent, or $108,600 less than last year. Public works will cost $3.11 million, up 4.39 percent, or $130,600.
General government expenditures will be about $1.50 million, down 12.27 percent or $209,400.
Expenditures for culture, recreation and education are budgeted at $1.32 million, down 4.69 percent or $65,000.
Health and human services will remain the same as last year, $69,000. Capital outlay for projects and equipment will also remain the same at $94,400.
The city will need $887,500 to cover the fire trucks debt and other debt service costs, up by nearly three times the 2014 cost of $225,000.
New to the budget for 2015 is Conservation and Development, an accounting classification that will envelop several aspects of community development once scattered throughout the city's organizational levels, such as IT services, the senior center, the airport, and economic development, as well as historic preservation and forestry. Conservation and Development will get $175,400.
The council voted unanimously Tuesday to increase the amount to Monroe Chamber of Commerce, from $5,000 to $10,000. The council also voted 7-1 for the additional amount to come out of the city's contingency fund. Armstrong voted against. A previous motion to put the extra $5,000 into the levy lost by a vote of 3-5.
About $68,600 of revenue will be transferred from the general fund to TID 7 debt and the airport account.
Outside the general budget
Storm water, water and waste water are utilities that are self-supported and do not come into play during budget and levy approvals.
The city also holds special revenue fund accounts for the airport, BID, visitor and promotions, and the revolving loan fund, whose expenditures are limited by law or controlled by other entities.
By unanimous vote, the council on Tuesday also approved the downtown Business Improvement District's tax levy of $37,500 and its operating plan for 2015.
Council members voted 7-2 to approve the proposed budget and levy amount, maintaining $480,000 in the levy to pay off a debt incurred this year for purchasing two fire trucks. Chris Beer and Louis Armstrong voted against. Michael Boyce was absent.
The amount to be levied, $6.733 million, will result in a tax rate of $10.41 per $1,000 of property value. Property values totaling about $647 million were slightly lower than the estimated $648 million previously reported, according to City Administrator Phil Rath.
Under the new tax rate, the owner of a $100,000 home in the city will pay $1,041 in city taxes, $62, or 6.3 percent, more than in 2014. The owner of property valued at $150,000 will pay $1,561 in 2015 city taxes, compared to $1,469 paid in 2014, about $93 more.
Why now
The $480,000 debt payoff did not go without discussion at the meeting. Beer motioned and Armstrong seconded to remove the payoff amount. Beer maintained that it contributed to "quite a (large) percent increase" in the levy compared to last year. The 2015 levy amount is $461,000 higher, or 7.35 percent more, than the 2014 levy of $6.272 million.
Other alders said they preferred to lower the debt now to eliminate the $85,000 annual payment for the next six years while saving interest costs. Reid Stangel and Brooke Bauman noted constituents have voiced in favor of the debt payoff. Charles Koch said future reconstruction projects, such as the parking ramp and 8th Street West, will mean more borrowing.
"We can't keep adding to it (the debt)," he said. "We have to pay it off."
Tom Miller agreed, particularly about postponing the decision on repairing or replacing the parking ramp.
"We keep making the frosting on the cake look better, but the cake is rotting," he said.
Rath said this year was the "perfect storm" in combined tax bills, with other taxing entities having lowered their rates for 2015. The city's rate increase will not hit taxpayers with as much notice overall. However, Stangel and Armstrong both reject that rationality.
If the city has to raise taxes, Stangel said it should "do it regardless of what else is happening."
Beer and Armstrong's efforts to strike the $480,000 failed, 6-2.
Where city taxes go
Of the total $6.73 million in city tax revenue collected next year, about $5.68 million will go into the general fund; $888,000 will go into covering the total debt fund; $94,000 will be put toward capital projects; $58,500 will fund the airport and $10,000 will be used to offset a small portion of TID No. 7 debt.
Other revenues
The general fund revenues are expected to total $10.85 million, up 3.86 percent from $10,450 last year.
Federal and state aid and other intergovernmental revenues of $2.22 million will be down by 6.3 percent, or $148,000, next year. The city will lose out on about $240,000 of state revenues in expenditure restraint payments, in part from overspending its budget this year, when it used about $800,000 to cover surcharges for entering into the state health insurance plan for its city employees. The $800,000 was residuals the city owned when it self-insured and carried its own health insurance plan.
Expenditures total
General fund expenditures, including debt service and capital outlay, are budgeted at $10.98 million, up 5.14 percent from $10,450 last year, and leave the fund with a $134,000 deficit.
Of that amount, the city expects to spend $3.77 million for public safety, down 2.8 percent, or $108,600 less than last year. Public works will cost $3.11 million, up 4.39 percent, or $130,600.
General government expenditures will be about $1.50 million, down 12.27 percent or $209,400.
Expenditures for culture, recreation and education are budgeted at $1.32 million, down 4.69 percent or $65,000.
Health and human services will remain the same as last year, $69,000. Capital outlay for projects and equipment will also remain the same at $94,400.
The city will need $887,500 to cover the fire trucks debt and other debt service costs, up by nearly three times the 2014 cost of $225,000.
New to the budget for 2015 is Conservation and Development, an accounting classification that will envelop several aspects of community development once scattered throughout the city's organizational levels, such as IT services, the senior center, the airport, and economic development, as well as historic preservation and forestry. Conservation and Development will get $175,400.
The council voted unanimously Tuesday to increase the amount to Monroe Chamber of Commerce, from $5,000 to $10,000. The council also voted 7-1 for the additional amount to come out of the city's contingency fund. Armstrong voted against. A previous motion to put the extra $5,000 into the levy lost by a vote of 3-5.
About $68,600 of revenue will be transferred from the general fund to TID 7 debt and the airport account.
Outside the general budget
Storm water, water and waste water are utilities that are self-supported and do not come into play during budget and levy approvals.
The city also holds special revenue fund accounts for the airport, BID, visitor and promotions, and the revolving loan fund, whose expenditures are limited by law or controlled by other entities.
By unanimous vote, the council on Tuesday also approved the downtown Business Improvement District's tax levy of $37,500 and its operating plan for 2015.