The Clearwater City Council Monday took steps to reduce the 2018 levy by cutting back its EDA residential growth incentive program.
In September, the council approved a preliminary levy of $1,051,850, which is a 5.20% increase over the 2017 levy of $999,852. At that time, the council discussed the possibility of budget reductions to bring the increase down to a more palatable number - possibly in the 2% to 3.5% range by the time the council approved the final levy in December.
Monday, Clearwater City Administrator Kevin Kress presented the council with a spreadsheet showing the impact of different levey scenarios.
The first option (Scenario A) left the levy as is - a 5.20% increase.
Scenario B eliminated the EDA Growth Incentive Program, a reduction of $28,406, bringing the levy increase down to 2.34%.
Scenario C kept the incentive program intact, but cut $20,000 from the fire department capital levy, resulting in an overall levy increase of 3.2%.
Scenario D cut both the growth incentive program and $20,000 from the fire capital budget, resulting in a 0.34% increase.
“Staff’s perspse the $20,000 for the fire department,” Kress told members of the council. “I think we’re pretty bare bones there. We could use the extra cash to upgrade their equipment and maintain this building.”
Councilman Richard Petty said he would be in favor of cutting the growth incentive program, which was developed to promote residential growth by covering WAC & SAC fees (about $7,500) to the first four people who build single family homes in the city each year. He said the program really wasn’t the driving factor for people to build in Clearwater.
Kress agreed.
“We can’t necessarily say it incentivizes because it’s kind of an afterthought,” he said. “It’s really more of a bonus. They already had plans to move to Clearwater and noticed that we had a program after-the-fact.”
Councilman Rollie Lange said he liked the idea of the incentive program even though it wasn’t used much.
“But I can go either way,” he said.
Councilman Kris Crandall was also debating cutting the program.
“I think we did a really good job working on the budget, so the approved preliminary budget would be my preferred (scenario),” he said. “But if I had to bend I guess it would be Scenario B.”
Mayor Pete Edmonson said taxpayers were already looking at a potential nine-plus percent increase from Wright County plus a school referendum. He felt lowering the city’s levy to near two percent would sit better with city taxpayers.
Kress said he would the revise the numbers and present the new scenario for final approval in December.