Dodge Center Council eyes 9.46% budget increase

Dodge Center will likely be approving a 9.46% increase in the budget levy for 2016 later this month.
City Administrator Lee Mattson told council members last week that the staff had the 2016 budget down to a 9.46% increase from the 10.57% increase that the council had certified earlier. The council had indicated when the figure was certified that they would like to see it reduced further if possible.
Mattson said the proposed levy is currently at $1,466,753. Most of the increase, he said, is due to street improvements and setting money aside for future street reconstruction projects.
“The biggest general fund increase is in street funds,” Mattson said.
The city set a not-to-exceed levy in September as required by law with a 10.57% increase. That amount can be reduced by the time the final numbers are approved in December but not increased. The budget hearing is scheduled for Dec. 14.
The council also addressed the fund balance for the Dodge Center Library.
The library currently has a reserve of about  $110,000. Mattson said a representative of SELCO said that $60,000 would be a reasonable amount for the Library Board to have in reserve and Library Director Ingvild Herfindahl said she agreed with that figure.
She said she wanted to see the fund at a reasonable level and did not see a need for the library board to have the amount currently in reserve.
Council approved a motion to request the Library Board to return $51,000 to the city.
The council also voted to have the city contact the Minnesota Department of Transportation to cancel a grant that would have developed a trail adjacent to the Triton School property. The project has been in the discussion stage for several months with the school board officially deciding at their last meeting not to increase their share of the project to $75,000. The council decided to cancel the project rather than take on the entire cost that could run to $150,000.
Council also approved a compliance agreement with the Minnesota Department of Revenue dealing with a MinnesotaCare tax which, Dodge Center, like a number of smaller ambulance services has not been paying to the state.
Volunteer services are not required to pay the tax, Mattson said, but as soon as one paid staff member is retained the service is subject to a tax of two percent of gross receipts. Medicare payments and a number of other governmental payments are excluded from the tax, Mattson said.