Minot’s city council didn’t blink in the face of difficult realities when members met last week in a workshop setting to broadly discuss 2019 budget challenges.

It’s never too early to start this discussion and council members are well aware that the chore will be a trying one.

Many, if not most, Minot homeowners would point to the substantial property tax increase this year as the issue most on their minds. With some experiencing as much as a 30 percent tax increase, what looms in 2019 is understandably on the minds of many.

Last year, the state’s elimination of supplements to keep property taxes down, a dramatic drop in sales tax revenue and property valuation changes all contributed to the city’s difficulty. Minot had become, in previous years, far too dependent on sales tax revenue to fund city services – which kept the city from raising property taxes but also wrongly gambled that the sales tax source would continue to expand. In light of the energy slowdown and general economic sluggishness, this was not good policy. The result was this council and administration having to face last year’s immense challenges.

Next year will present different challenges. City Manager Tom Barry said the city will be increasing its debt from about $88 million to more than $200 million when it begins bonding for flood protection and the Northwest Area Water Supply Project. Shifting sales tax dollars to pay for those projects will take money away from infrastructure projects and property-tax relief, he said. He noted the city will need to find $4 million for NAWS from sales tax, the equivalent of about 20 mills in property tax.

There were no solutions presented at this early workshop, needless to say. But Council member Mark Jantzer offered a reasonable general philosophical outline for how to address the 2019 budget. Jantzer said zero increase is the place to start in proposing a budget. Any increase above the current level needs to be tied to a specific, explainable expenditure.

City taxpayers deserve that or a similar approach, rich in fiscal conservatism and in transparency. It would help take the edge off what is shaping up to be another tough budget.