Council includes personnel costs in budget | News, Sports, Jobs
Submitted Photo: A load of asphalt is unloaded during road repairs after repairing a water break. City workers were captured at work in northeast Minot on Monday in this photo provided by the City of Minot.
Changes to employee compensation and benefits could lower property taxes for Minot property owners next year, but Minot City Council members are taking time to consider these potential changes.
They expect to make adjustments after a public hearing on the preliminary budget on September 16. They also leave open the option of meeting again if necessary to finalize the budget.
Council President Mark Jantzer delivered the President’s annual message with his budget recommendations, which included eliminating a proposed new human resources position and reducing salary increases.
The original budget included an additional $2.3 million to cover salary adjustments needed to keep pace with market rates and provide a 2.5% incremental increase. Jantzer supported a hybrid plan proposed by City Manager Harold Stewart that would give employees either the market rate increase or an incremental increase, but not both. Salary increases for department heads would be capped at no more than the equivalent of two incremental increases.
“Over the last three years, salary costs for existing employees have increased by about 21%,” said Jantzer. “A continuation of these current trends seems impossible.”
The hybrid plan cuts $280,000 from the fee-based corporate funds and $420,000 from the general fund, which affects property taxes. Jantzer proposed using $100,000 of the general fund savings to develop a police recruitment plan and $250,000 to move eligible employees into the North Dakota Public Employees Retirement System (NDPERS) police/fire pension plan a year earlier than planned.
“Police understaffing has been a chronic problem for years and part of a national challenge in the United States. Money doesn’t solve all the problems, but we need to do more to retain the officers we have and increase recruitment to fill as many of our vacancies as possible,” said Jantzer.
The remaining $70,000 from the compensation cut would result in a property tax reduction, as would the elimination of $85,000 from the budget for a new human resources position.
The total tax savings would be $155,000, or $2.71 per $100,000 of home ownership.
The council also received a report on alternatives to health insurance, some of which would cost less than the 5% increase proposed in the preliminary budget. However, keeping the existing plan would add an additional 1.5% to health insurance costs on top of the 5%.
