City OKs smaller tax increase
Mike Blessum
Mark Jantzer
Mike Blessum
Mark Jantzer
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Minot homeowners would pay about 6% more in city property tax under a budget approved on first reading by the Minot City Council Wednesday, Sept. 9.
Six residents spoke at a public hearing on the budget, largely to urge the council to find ways to eliminate a tax increase. Raising concerns about paying for a tax increase on fixed incomes or after having been set back financially by the 2011 flood, residents cited the hardships that higher taxes create. One resident also stated he was pleased with the direction the council was going in reducing the amount of the increase.
The council trimmed the tax levy request from $26.7 million to $22.4 million at a special meeting Sept. 3. Using preliminary budget figures and the median home values of $229,000 in 2025 and 244,000 in 2026, a Minot resident in the Minot school district would have a total tax increase of $45 a year, down from $191 with the city's originally proposed budget. Residents' actual taxes will be impacted by whether their home assessments changed and how much and by final budgets approved by taxing entities.
The city's share of the tax will go up about $21 per $100,000 of residential property.
Council member Mike Blessum noted the council acted on about 65 motions related to adjusting the budget last week, with a number of those motions passing.
"We're on a path one that we think will be sustainable. It's going to take more hard work in the coming years, but we're in a much better spot," he said.
Among the adjustments was the addition of a Voluntary Separation Incentive Program that assumes 14 employee positions would be eliminated and 14 refilled at a lower classification next year, saving $1.26 million.
Since about 2012, the city has increased its staffing from 320 employees to nearly 500, Blessum said. Since he was elected in 2024 in a team campaign with council members Rob Fuller and Scott Samuelson, growth has stopped, he said.
"We've at least plateaued it and started to bend the curve back the other direction. So, we're in a situation now where we can start to do some of the things that some of the speakers talked about tonight, which is to start to get the costs under control," he said.
Mayor Mark Jantzer said he has concerns about uncertainty related to meeting the separation numbers in the Voluntary Separation Incentive Program. He asked the Finance Department to take another look at the model and come back with an analysis of how it will work in achieving the expected results by the end of fiscal year 2027.
"Either we are going to hit those numbers or we're going to have to potentially take yet more money out of cash reserves," Jantzer said.
Blessum attributed some of the inability to move the needle further on tax reductions to newly elected council members having a different outlook.
"Even with that, we're able to do a lot of good work for the people of our city, and so, I'm proud of the work that we've done so far. We're going to get by with what I would term as a moderate increase," he said of taxes. "And so, I just want to tell everybody I'm proud of our team up here that we were able to come together on the items that made sense and that there was consensus on."
The council passed the 2027 budget on first reading 6-1, with dissent from Samuelson, who previously stated he would never vote for a tax increase.
Another budget hearing will be held Monday, Sept. 21, before the council takes final action on second reading.