{"id":83850,"date":"2015-10-05T18:35:28","date_gmt":"2015-10-05T23:35:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/?p=83850"},"modified":"2015-10-06T07:22:26","modified_gmt":"2015-10-06T12:22:26","slug":"city-council-approves-2016-budget-hears-concerns","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/?p=83850","title":{"rendered":"City Council approves 2016 budget, hears concerns"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"City<\/a><\/p>\n

Jamestown (CSi) The Jamestown City Council held a Public Hearing Monday at 6:00-p.m. concerning the proposed budget for City General and Special Funds for the fiscal period January 1, 2016, through December 31, 2016.<\/p>\n

An overview of the budget was given as Mayor Katie Andersen explained earlier on Monday\u2019s Wayne Byers Show on CSi Cable 2.<\/p>\n

She said, while the property tax will increase by 6.29% the city\u2019s General Fund budget will increase by 5%, with the bulk of the increase with expenditures by the Jamestown Police Department, followed by expenditures by the Street Department, and City Fire Department. Also in the General Fund budget, is the City Engineeing Department, and City Forestry.<\/p>\n

She pointed out that the tax rate is determined by a formula based on property valuations, and the amount of mills levied. Property values have increased, allowing the Mill Levy to decrease.<\/p>\n

She pointed out that the City of Jamestown is one political sub-division that taxes, in addition to the City Parks and Recreation Department, Jamestown Public Schools, and Stutsman County.<\/p>\n

She said the budget includes a projected 25% balance, of the budget earmarked for the Reserve Fund.<\/p>\n

Items in the budget and planned expenditures include:<\/p>\n

Police Department\u2026$3,206,690.<\/p>\n

City Fire Department\u2026$759,405,000<\/p>\n

Street Department\u2026$1,992,085<\/p>\n

Engineering\u2026$188,050<\/p>\n

Forestry\u2026$113,710<\/p>\n

Water Department\u2026$3,723,540<\/p>\n

Sewer Utility\u2026$2,505,180<\/p>\n

Sanitation\u2026$1,779,630<\/p>\n

Solid Waste Disposal\u2026$1,638,985<\/p>\n

Civic Center\u2026$667,800<\/p>\n

General Administration\u2026.$381,336<\/p>\n

City Hall\u2026$52,640<\/p>\n

Inspections\u2026$245,375<\/p>\n

SPECIAL FUNDS\u2026.<\/p>\n

Library\u2026$576,000<\/p>\n

Airport\u2026$153,600<\/p>\n

Animal Shelter\u2026$19,200<\/p>\n

Public Building Site\u2026$192,000<\/p>\n

The total General Fund budget is $8,158,598<\/p>\n

A copy of the budget is on file at the Jamestown City Administrator\u2019s office at City Hall for public inspection during normal business hours, 8-a.m. to 5-p.m., Monday-Friday.<\/p>\n

Public comments were taken from those in attendance.<\/p>\n

Larry Suko said he\u2019s lived at his residence for 30 years and indicated repair costs on an older home. He pointed out that owners of older homes don\u2019t face the same expenses.\u00a0 He indicated he\u2019s retired, and pointed out that the property tax is unfair, as its being repaid by the property owner. He said other sources of income is necessary to fund the city budget, other than taxpayers.<\/p>\n

JoAnn Hanson asked how the valuations are determined, which was explained by the City Assessor.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Mike Cuffe said the city needs to look at more operating costs, to reduce taxes.<\/p>\n

Others spoke with comments including higher taxes in Jamestown forcing potential residents to look elsewhere where taxes are lower.<\/p>\n

Cyndi Wish said she moved into her present residence in March, and indicated that the city\u2019s tax structure may prohibit new residents from moving to Jamestown.<\/p>\n

Council Member Buchanan suggested that those with concerns on local property taxes to contact local state legislators and bring the issue to Bismarck during legislative session, for more state aid to cities.<\/p>\n

Following the public comments:<\/p>\n

The SECOND READING of an <\/b>Ordinance was approved pertaining to the appropriation of the General and Special Funds for the fiscal year January 1, 2016, through December 31, 2016.<\/p>\n

The SECOND READING of an <\/b>Ordinance was approved pertaining to the appropriation of the Revenue and Special Funds for the fiscal year January 1, 2016, through December 31, 2016.<\/p>\n

The City Council then, directed the City Administrator to notify the County that the City of Jamestown should be exempt from the County Library Levy as the City maintains its own library levy.<\/p>\n

And, directed the City Administrator to certify the tax levies to the County for the fiscal period January 1, 2016, through December 31, 2016.<\/p>\n

The meeting was shown live on CSi 67 followed by replays.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Jamestown (CSi) The Jamestown City Council held a Public Hearing Monday at 6:00-p.m. concerning the proposed budget for City General and Special Funds for the fiscal period January 1, 2016, through December 31, 2016. An overview of the budget was given as Mayor Katie Andersen explained earlier on Monday\u2019s Wayne […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[25,14],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-83850","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-featured","category-jamestown"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/83850","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=83850"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"http:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/83850\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":83886,"href":"http:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/83850\/revisions\/83886"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=83850"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=83850"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=83850"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}