Jill Schramm/MDN Dispatchers work in the emergency dispatch center at the Minot Police Department last June. Two additional dispatchers would be hired next year under the city’s proposed 2022 budget.

The Minot City Council approved a $175 million budget on first reading Tuesday after a public hearing drew no feedback.

The tax increase over this year’s budget is slight — a fraction of a mill. It reflects the council’s decision to add additional employee positions and to fully fund positions that would not be in place for the entirety of 2022. Full funding prevents another jump in the cost of those new positions in 2023.

The council cut about $600,000 from its preliminary budget after making choices about how many new positions to add.

The council elected to adopt recommendations from Council President Lisa Olson, which come with a property tax of 121.49 mills, up from 121.29 mills budgeted for this year. The actual levy for 2021 came in less than projected in the 2021 budget once the county finalized property valuations. The 2022 levy also is an estimate, subject to property valuation and tax credit determinations.

Council member Paul Pitner cast the only vote against the budget. He favored a budget plan that would have held the levy steady at 121.29 mills by adding five new positions — two dispatchers, two bus drivers and a plumbing inspector — and converting four part-time positions to full time.

Olson’s recommendation adds six positions and moves the four part-time positions to full time. The full-time positions are a police computer forensics technician, two emergency dispatchers, plumbing inspector, mechanic and a senior buildings and grounds worker. The part-time positions that would go to full-time are an administrative clerk in Community Development, parts clerk/bus driver, buildings and grounds worker and light equipment operator/scale attendant at the landfill.

The preliminary budget had included 18 new positions, with requests for heavy equipment operators, a police public information officer, fire captain, GIS technician, water plant operator and utility operator among others.

“We just know that there’s a need going into 2022, and I feel that these positions are necessary. Again, the increase is so slight,” Olson said. “I know we can’t say exactly what it is because we’re not at the very end of the year, but indications are that might be less than a $1 increase on a $100,000 property.”

Pitner said his desire is to keep the mill levy from rising, primarily to create a more favorable environment for the school district to pursue a bond issue for its facilities.

“These are not foolish investments into our staff or into our organization. I get that our organization needs these positions to improve services. But I think as a community as a whole, looking at some of our other taxing entities, I want to be a good partner,” he said. “I want to give them the best chance to succeed.”

Olson responded she believes her recommendation takes care of the city’s immediate needs while keeping the opportunity open for the school district to pursue its bond issue.

“I’ll even quote Alderman Pitner from a previous meeting when he said we take care of our own house,” she said. “I think that in this budget, we’re doing that, but we are also listening to the needs of the community, recognizing that there are other community projects that will be coming forward, and hopefully, we will be able to accomplish all of them.”

Mayor Shaun Sipma said the budget is “doing more with less” once inflation is factored in.

“Given the times, absolutely, I think it’s very prudent, to Alderman Pitner’s point, to send the message loud and clear that we are doing our due diligence on this budget in anticipation of a bond that is coming forward for a second high school in Minot,” he said.

Sipma also explained the budget’s size is inflated by the cost of flood protection and the Northwest Area Water Supply project. “Communities, our size, typically don’t run budgets as large, but communities, our size, typically also don’t build generational projects at the same time,” he said.

The tax levy to support the 2022 budget is about $26 million.