Lianne Zeltinger

Minot

Well, it is budget time once again. I attended a budget meeting presented by City Manager Tom Barry last week. I learned many things, but will share only a couple. Did you know that in 2005 our mill levy was 126.52. And, each subsequent year reductions were approved so by 2010 the mill was down to 107.33?

Then, in 2011 a significant drop was made to drop it to 76.67 mills and then remained less than 80 mills until 2017 except in 2014 when it bumped up to 84.29 for that one year. The drop from 2011 until 2017 caused us, the city, a loss of 56.3 million dollars. Let me repeat that. A loss of $56.3 million in income. I don’t think any of us complained when our property tax continued to fall. Who wants to pay taxes?? I also don’t think many or any of us questioned why or what would be the end result. We were all happy not paying. But hindsight is 20/20. I won’t share the 126 page presentation here, but suffice it to say we all turned a blind eye and neglected to ask as some pertinent questions. The bottom line? Time to pay the pied piper.

If anyone has concrete realistic ideas where the city budget can be cut, or how we can raise some real money; please let Mr. Barry know as soon as possible. A couple of money raising ideas were presented at the meeting and deserve further conversation. The first budget will be presented August 6th. Time is short. Stay tuned and informed.