No property tax increase is included in a $143.5 million city budget adopted on first reading by the Minot City Council Tuesday.

Property taxes of $25.78 million would be needed to augment other revenue sources in the $143.5 million budget. The mill levy is expected to remain stable.

The budget includes nearly $130 million less in spending due to a decline in large capital projects and a change in the way expenses are budgeted. It includes no increases to utilities or other fees.

The budget includes funding for the Northwest Area Water Supply project, flood protection, a $2 million for Broadway watermain upsizing project, an additional $1 million for the street department and a new city hall.

The 2021 budget adds back partial funding for construction of a city hall retaining wall and northwest fire station.

During a public hearing on the budget, Cindy Sessions of Minot asked the council to consider the importance of constructing the northwest fire station.

“To hear that it’s only half funded in 2021, with the enormous amount of construction, new homes, new apartments that are in the northwest area, so my concern is just public safety, and, of course, the coordination by the fire chief, wondering what her views are,” Sessions said.

Mayor Shaun Sipma explained the proposal is to fund half the cost of the fire station in 2021 and half in 2022. If sales tax revenues come in higher than projected, there would be opportunity to advance the work more quickly, he said. The fire chief was unable to attend Tuesday’s meeting, but Sipma said the city has an ISO 2 fire rating, which is the second highest rating.

“We are much farther ahead than we were even four or five years ago when it came to response time, so we all recognize that as a priority,” Sipma said.

David Lakefield, acting city manager, said the decision to delay the construction of the fire station resulted from economic uncertainty that came with the COVID-19 pandemic. A significant portion of the original funding for the project was oil-tax based Hub City funding from the state, which became an unstable funding source.

“So we were concerned about beginning this project and not having the funding to complete it,” Lakefield said.

The 2021 budget also adds three new employee positions. An intelligence analyst would be added to the Police Department, a project manager in the Public Works Department and a part-time fire marshal would become a full-time fire inspector.