Proposed city budget would hike tax rate by $1.85

ROCHESTER - Rochester City Manager Blaine Cox presented the proposed operating and capital budgets for fiscal year 2024 on Tuesday during a City Council workshop.

The City Manager's proposed budget, inclusive of City, County, and Schools, is $3,414,376 below the tax cap and represents an estimated $1.85 tax rate increase. The estimated tax rate increase of the proposed budget may change following any updates to the FY23 net assessed value by the Chief Assessor in May.

Rochester's FY24 tax cap is calculated per City Charter requirements as the total FY23 property tax effort, increased by the National Consumer Price Index - Urban (8%), plus the application of the net increase in new construction (3.99%).

The FY24 Compliant Tax Effort is $80,038,333; or a tax cap compliant allowable increase of $8,578,215 (12%) over FY23. The proposed City, County and School budgets are all below the tax cap and represent a collective increase of $5,163,838 (7.23%) over FY23.

The FY 2024 Capital Improvements Plan (CIP) Budget for City services, enterprise funds, and the School Department is proposed at $34,025,523 and represents a $9,455,944 increase over FY23.

In developing the city manager's proposed budget, Cox stipulated that departments submit no more than a 2% Operating & Maintenance (O&M) budgetary increase, exclusive of salary and benefits. Any increases that exceeded the 2% and any new, expanded or reclassified positions required the submission of an "Issues & Options" (I&O) request. The City Manager included sixteen (16) of the twenty-four (24) requested Issues & Options, and deemed six (6) of the included I&Os as required to maintain essential services.

"My proposed FY24 budget continues to maintain the city's sound fiscal health, while maintaining our high level of City services without significant increases in property taxes," said Cox. "I look forward to the City Council's budget deliberative process."

City Council will continue to review the budget at a retreat on May 5^th in Council Chambers at 9:30 am. Public hearings for the budget will be scheduled for May 16.