Jill Schramm/MDN City Manager Tom Barry points to a graph showing the benefits a state infrastructure fund could have on paying for flood control at a city council budget meeting Thursday.

Budget numbers are adding up to no new tax increase for Minot property owners.

Those numbers for 2020 include more than $6 million in hub city funding from the state, or an increase of about $2.7 million.

“This is a large reason why we are not having to recommend a property tax increase this year,” City Manager Tom Barry told Minot City Council members at a budget discussion meeting Thursday. “If this hadn’t happened, our financial outlook would look very different today.”

Where to spend that hub city funding hasn’t been determined but the council is considering its options. One option outlined by administration would allocate $1.5 million toward relocating city hall.

The proposal is to include $7.75 million in the 2020 budget toward establishing a new city hall. Money would come from hub city money, cash reserves and the city’s National Disaster Resilience grant. The grant includes $3.75 million for a city hall, but it carries conditions that the city hall be located downtown in an existing building by Sept. 30, 2022.

The city has about $22 million in reserves, although $14 million is earmarked for the Northwest Area Water Supply Project and flood control.

Council member Shannon Straight suggested the public may prefer to see hub city money go toward a new northwest fire station. The city is proposing a $3.4 million station on land already purchased along Fourth Avenue on the west end of town.

The administration’s proposal is to set aside reserve funds of $1.35 million in 2020, $1 million in 2021 and $1.1 million in 2022. The project could be completed in August 2022. Additional operational costs for the fire department are estimated at only around $300,000 for the next few years because of a proposed minimum manning approach that would enable the fire department to operate five fire stations while adding only three firefighters beyond current staffing for four stations. Fifteen positions were added when the fourth station was built.

Council President Mark Jantzer said if a project is deemed valuable, the funding source shouldn’t matter.

“Each project has to be justified and stand on its own merit. Regardless of the source of funding – whether you build a fire station out of reserves or you use hub city funding and then use reserves for city hall – it boils down to the same thing. Both of those projects have to be sold or have to stand on their own merit,” he said.

The city is projecting $57 million in income from various sources and about $49.4 million in personnel, operations and maintenance expenses, leaving about $7.6 million for capital improvements, such as a fire station, city hall or street projects.

“We are really excited that the budget is looking the way it is,” Barry said. “We wouldn’t be in this spot if we hadn’t made the decisions we made in the last couple of years.”

The city remains down about 15 positions in personnel from 2018 and has made about $5 million in sustained reductions in operating costs. Discontinuation of the Community Facilities Fund also contributed a $5 million savings. Cuts to grants and donations accounted for $600,000 in savings.

However, the city is looking at salaries rising overall by 3.8% and benefits by 5.8%. Barry said the biggest driver in the increase in benefits is the unfunded liability in the pension fund. The fund is closed to new enrollees but continues to operate for about 230 employees, retirees and beneficiaries.

Additionally, a budget proposal exists to use 50% of the first penny of sales tax and 18% of the second penny for flood control in 2020.

Thursday’s discussion was informational only. Input from council members will be used by administration in crafting a preliminary budget over the next several weeks.