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The Official City Newsletter for Arden Hills Residents January/February 2017 <br />Revenues <br />• General Fund revenues in the 2017 <br />budget are set at $4,860,297. <br />• The most notable revenue line item <br />is the levy amount, which will result <br />in an additional $162,515 in revenue <br />over the previous year. <br />• Building permits and other revenue <br />are expected to increase, too. <br />Expenditures <br />• General Fund expenditures for 2017 <br />total $5,056,253. <br />• Public Safety costs are set to increase <br />3.9 percent for the Lake Johanna <br />Fire Department, 6.5 percent for the <br />Ramsey County Sheriff’s Department <br />(RCSD) contract, and 1.5 percent for <br />dispatch services. These costs repre- <br />sent a $92,515 increase in the budget, <br />or a 2.7 percent increase to the levy. <br />• After accounting for the Public Safety <br />increases, the remaining General <br />Fund budget increases are primarily <br />due to employee salary and benefit <br />Cost of Living Adjustments (COLA) <br />and budgeted one-time expenditures. <br />• Expenditures for City Hall mainte- <br />nance and an infrastructure/capital <br />reserve fund to address increasing <br />repair costs for the City Hall are <br />included this year. <br />Other rate increases <br />• 2017 utility fees are increasing as <br />well. The water and sanitary sewer <br />rates are increasing by 2 percent, and <br />the surface water management rate is <br />increasing by 3 percent. <br />The overall budget for the City in 2017 <br />was set at $18,777,880. See the approved <br />budget and tax levy information in the <br />December 12, 2016 City Council agenda <br />posted on the City’s website. <br />At its December 12, 2016 meeting, <br />the City Council adopted a 2017 <br />property tax levy of $3,641,290. <br />This sets the City’s property tax rate <br />increase for 2017 at 4.7 percent, which is <br />unchanged from the preliminary levy rate <br />set in September 2016. <br />Funding from the City’s share of regional <br />fiscal disparities has increased for 2017 <br />and will contribute $290,710 toward the <br />levy total. The City’s tax capacity has also <br />increased, and taxes paid by City property <br />owners will account for the remaining bal- <br />ance, or $3,350,580. <br />The impact of a 4.7 percent levy – applied <br />to a net tax rate increase – translates to a <br />$38.90 (or an approximate 4.7 percent) <br />increase in annual taxes paid by resident <br />owners of median valued homes (value <br />changing from $300,300 to $306,350). <br />In Arden Hills, the entire tax levy goes <br />toward the General Fund expenditures in <br />the City’s budget. The property tax levy <br />accounts for approximately 75 percent of <br />the General Fund revenues. Due to the <br />current economic environment, $195,955 <br />in reserves was used to balance the 2017 <br />budget. In 2016, the City had a budget <br />shortfall of $725,447. However, this was <br />mostly due to a $565,121 transfer made in <br />2016 from better than expected revenues <br />in 2015. Accounting for the transfer, the <br />actual budgeted shortfall in 2016 was <br />$160,326. <br />What your Arden Hills tax dollar buys you: <br />2017 tax levy unchanged from preliminary 4.7 percent rate set in September <br />This article was written by Director of Finance and <br />Administrative Services Susan Iverson and Finance <br />Analyst Dave Perrault.