Submitted Photo A load of asphalt is dumped in making street repairs following a water break repair. The city crew was captured on the job in northeast Minot Monday in this photo from the City of Minot.

Changes to employee pay and benefits could lower next year’s property tax for Minot property owners, but members of the Minot City Council are taking time to think through those potential changes.

They expect to make adjustments after a public hearing on the preliminary budget Sept. 16 and are leaving open the option to meet again, if necessary, to finalize a budget.

Council President Mark Jantzer presented the annual president’s message with his budget recommendations, which included eliminating a proposed new position in Human Resources and scaling back salary increases.

The original budget included $2.3 million in additional dollars to cover salary changes needed to keep up with market rates and provide a 2.5% step increase. Jantzer supported a hybrid plan offered by City Manager Harold Stewart that would allow employees either the market rate increase or a step increase, but not both. Department heads’ raises would be limited to no more than the equivalent of two step increases.

“In the past three years, the salary costs for existing employees have increased about 21%,” Jantzer said. “Continuing to sustain these current trends appears impossible.”

The hybrid plan cuts $280,000 from fee-based enterprise funds and $420,000 from the general fund, which is the portion that impacts property taxes. Jantzer proposed using $100,000 of the general fund savings to develop a police recruitment plan and $250,000 to move eligible employees into the North Dakota Public Employees Retirement System (NDPERS) Police/Firefighter Pension Plan a year earlier than planned.

“Staffing shortages in the police department has been a chronic issue for years and is part of a national challenge in the U.S. Money does not solve every problem, but we need to do more to keep the officers we have and strengthen recruiting to fill as many of our vacant slots as possible,” Jantzer said.

The remaining $70,000 from the compensation cut would reduce the property tax, as would the elimination from the budget of $85,000 for a new position in Human Resources.

Total tax savings would be $155,000, or $2.71 for each $100,000 in residential property.

The council also received a report on alternatives for health insurance, some of which would cost less than the 5% increase anticipated in the preliminary budget. However, staying with the existing plan would add another 1.5% in health premium costs beyond the 5%.