Laserfiche WebLink
<br /> Reduce the Council Contingency line item of $15,000 included in the 2025 Budget. This item <br />is typically utilized for unbudgeted and unanticipated expenditures that may come up. If the <br />funds are not expended, they are added to the General Fund. City staff does not recommend <br />using this approach at this time. <br /> Reduce the current Cost of Living Adjustment (COLA). The COLA is currently budgeted at an <br />increase of 3.2% for 2025. For each one percent reduction to the COLA, the savings would be <br />approximately $14,060 or a 0.33% levy decrease. The City has utilized a formula for the past <br />five years that weights the CPI Index for the Minneapolis/St. Paul/Bloomington market at 25% <br />and the average COLA for comparison municipalities at 75%. This formula has worked well <br />over the past five years and helped to maintain a competitive pay structure. Federal employees <br />and Social Security will increase by 2.5% in 2025. If City Council members do not wish to <br />follow the established formula, staff recommends maintaining a minimum COLA of 2.5%. <br /> Postpone the proposed increase to the Capital Infrastructure Levy of $40,000. In 2024, the <br />adopted Capital Infrastructure Levy was $160,000 with an increase of $40,000 to $200,000 <br />proposed for 2025. Staff recommends retaining this increase as it will help to provide needed <br />funds for projects identified in the 2025-2034 Capital Improvement Plan. <br /> <br />Staff Recommendation <br /> <br />1. City staff recommends City Council adoption of a final 2025 levy increase of 7.84%. <br /> <br />2. If Council would like to lower the levy further, staff recommends the following options: <br />a. Postpone the $30,000 increase to the General Capital Infrastructure fund that was <br />recommended to help in the 2027/2028 debt service payment levy. If this approach is <br />taken a larger debt service levy will be needed in 2027/2028. <br />b. Decrease the line item for the Projects/Facility Management Contracted Services from <br />$20,000 to $10,000. While this line item addresses an important identified need, staff <br />believes that management of some of the identified projects can be addressed through <br />public works staffing adjustments in 2025. <br /> <br />Note: If both items a and b are adopted, the levy increase will be reduced to 6.97% which is a 2.54% <br />decrease from the 9.51% preliminary levy adopted in September. <br /> <br />Documents Included with the Packet <br />1) 2025 Final Proposed Budget Book