The Clarion City Council moved closer to putting the final touches and approving its fiscal year 2020-2021 budget at the meeting last week. They will hold a public hearing on March 24 at 4:35 pm to approve and possibly finalize the budget.
The proposed budget for the upcoming year (which can be seen by clicking on Legals in the red bar above) would set the city tax rate at $17.903 per $1000 of taxable property value. That is a slight decrease from last year’s rate of $17.93. The levy rate for ag land is $3.00 per $1000.
Clarion’s projected tax rate is slightly higher than the other major cities in the county. Belmond’s proposed rate is $17.12 per $1000 while Eagle Grove’s is $17.25.
In other highlights from the proposed budgets, Clarion residents will see just over $400,000 going out from the city’s savings in expenditures/transfers. This comes after two years of increasing this account by $400,000.
However, city officials are not viewing this decrease as a negative. City Administrator Clint Middleton says, “We have been building up that account to do some important projects and now we can make some progress on some big things.” He pointed out proposed work on County K and over $30,000 of new amenities and work at the city pool as significant projects they hope to undertake in the near future.
Council member Andy Young, who closely assisted in preparing the budget, agreed. “I would call this a healthy decrease,” Young said. “It’s not a good use of taxpayer money to just hold onto cash where there are things we could be working on.”
The public hearing on March 24 will be held during a special meeting outside of the regular council meeting time. Middleton points out this is because of state publication requirements for budget hearings. The notice must appear for no less than 10 days before a meeting and no more than 20 days. Because meetings are now on Tuesday, this makes it difficult for the council to handle the matter in their regular meetings and meet the publication requirement.
Citizens are encouraged to attend the public hearing if they have questions or comments on budget.
