MAYVILLE — The Mayville City Council took aim at a $2.5 million deficit by approving a 4.5 percent tax increase on Monday night.
The mill rate thus jumped from $7.10 per $1,000 of assessed value to $7.70 per $1,000. That translates to an estimated $90 increase for a $150,000 house in city taxes, not including any other taxing entities.
The final budget was the product of lengthy meetings, with many hours of cutting and debating. In August the council passed a resolution that created a nine-year recovery plan, moving the budget $365,000 in the right direction every year to eliminate the deficit.
“It took us approximately 10 years to get into these deficits and the council saw fit to craft a nine-year plan to not only reduce the deficits, but to rebuild our undesignated fund to about 20 percent of our revenues of our total budget, about $800,000,” Mayor Tracy Heron said in October. “About 10 years ago our undesignated fund was about $1 million and now we’re in these deficits.”
Heron said the deficits were caused from the TAG Center being improperly budgeted since its inception and a $500,000 deficit in the capital improvement projects fund. He stressed that they are not debts, but budget deficits.
The council accomplished the goal for the 2010 budget by adding the $65,000 surplus from 2009.
The city also retained its wheel tax and moved hydrant fees from the city budget to the water utility, where they will appear as a new charge on water bills.
The council approved increasing the tax levy by $218,000, or 4.5 percent. Taxes were raised 3 percent last year and 3.86 percent the year before. This year the city had the opportunity to raise taxes as high as 8.9 percent, but chose a lower rate.
Last year the council had a ballpark goal, but it was a loose goal that wasn’t in writing. This year it was passed as a resolution and every year the resolution will be read before the budget season starts.
No citizens attended the budget hearing Monday to give their input.
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