Minot Budget Impact - KXNet - Bismarck/Minot/Williston/Dickinson

Minot Budget Impact

Monday night the Minot City Council passed the first reading of the 2013 annual budget.

It calls for hiring nearly 32 full time city employees many of which fall into the police and fire departments.

The record budget of more than 160 million dollars also expands departments vital for basic city services and makes wages more competitive to try and overcome turnover and vacancies.

In the past four years more than 100 lane miles of road have been added to the city, which means more street crews and equipment are necessary.

City Manager Dave Waind says the city is finding ways to pay for the addition of some personnel without piling it onto the tax role.

(Dave Waind, Minot City Manager) Part of that last night you saw the President of the council in adding additional manpower in the inspection department he took that out of the mill levee, the portion of that is not coming from property tax instead it will come from the fees for permits that are required, will be increased to a level that will be able to support the manpower and where that's possible the city council will be looking at every potential option."

As it stands now, if the 2013 city budget is passed it would mean an increase of about 94 dollars in property tax on a 200-thousand dollars house.

The budget though is NOT final.

The 2nd reading will take place this coming Monday night at Minot City Hall at 6:30.