Speaker numbers apply only to this recording.
The Altoona Common Council met on October 8, 2024, at 4:00 PM in the City Council Chambers to review the proposed 2025 budgets for the library and the general fund. Key discussions included revenue and expenditure projections, property assessment changes, and guidance on the desired tax levy increase. No public comments were heard.
Library Budget (2025) – Library Director Olivia Morse presented the proposed budget. The library is requesting $387,000 from the city, a $6,000 decrease from the 2024 request, despite an overall budget increase from $818,182 to $862,000. The difference is covered by higher county aid, reduced insurance costs, and line-item savings. Highlights include a 2.5% wage increase for part-time clerks, a step increase for full-time staff (with the wage scale also moving 2.5% per CPI-U), a $9,000 increase for print collections, and a $10,000 increase for programming. The library did not receive a Flexible Facilities Grant, but will make interior changes without grant funding. Summer reading program participation reached 122 teenagers and 829 children (a record for children).
General Fund Budget & Tax Levy Guidance – Finance Director Tina Nelson provided an overview of the 2025 budget process, identifying known expense increases: 2.5% wage/step increases ($144,000 across all funds), health insurance capped at 8% ($87,000), police union wages ($55,000), state retirement rate increases ($10,000), and the Eau Claire fire agreement increase ($32,000). Revenue changes include $29,000 more in shared revenue, $30,000 more in room tax, $17,974 in personal property tax replacement aid, $6,900 in supplemental aid, and a $20,000 decrease in transportation aids. The city's assessed values increased 17.15% overall (residential 13.52%, commercial 19.03%) after Board of Review adjustments, but the equalized value change is tempered by a prior-year correction. Nelson presented scenarios based on different levy increase percentages, showing the impact on an average $320,000 property's city tax portion. At a flat levy (0% increase), residential taxes would decrease $61 and commercial increase $31; at 2.5% increase, residential down $31, commercial up $63; at 3.2% (state DOR expenditure restraint guideline), residential down $23, commercial up $71; at 3.28%, residential flat on average ($0 change), commercial up $72. Council members debated the fairness and communication challenges, with many leaning toward the 3.28% increase to keep residential tax bills flat on average. Councilperson Caitlin Leopold expressed comfort with either 3.2% or 3.28%. Councilperson Timothy Lima noted the difficulty of predicting future market conditions and emphasized the need to fund known costs.
Budget Process Timing – Councilperson Bill asked why departmental budgets are finalized so late, noting pressure to make last-minute decisions. Staff acknowledged the issue, citing the new ClearGov software learning curve and the August release of CPI and health insurance numbers. City Administrator Roy Atkinson and Mayor Brendan Pratt committed to improving the timeline for the next budget cycle.
Yeah. Fancy Smanty. I don't have a card like that. Okay. Here's someone running. Oh, Lori. Ready? Yeah, we're ready now. All right, let's go ahead and call the budget committee meeting of Tuesday, October 8th, 2024 to order. We have roll call. Caitlin, just one second. We have Mayor Brendan Pratt. Councilperson Dale Stuber. Here. Councilperson Timothy Lima. Here. Councilperson Caitlin Leopold. Here. We have uh councilperson Matthew Bearn via Zoom. And we have absent at this time, Dylan Green and Susan. Oh we have absent at this time, Dylan Green and Susan Rowe. We also have present uh Mike Golot via Zoom, Roy Atkinson, Assistant City Administrator, Tina Nelson, Finance Director, Scott Quick, Director of Public Works, Mark Renderman, Fire Chief, Chad Durka, Parks and Recreation Director. I thought I put down for Olivia Morse, Library Director. And Cindy Bauer, City Clerk. Oh, I didn't see your tailor, sorry. Taylor Greenwell, uh, planning director. All right, number three overview of the 2025 proposed budgets, library budget and general fund budget. Good evening, everyone. Tonight, um, we're gonna look our agenda is to look at the proposed library budget. Um, I'll let Olivia do that. Um, then we'll come back and I'll kind of recap where we're at in the process of the budget. Um, we'll discuss some um additional information that we need to be able to complete the budgets and know what the tax bill will look like. And um the 2025 preliminary numbers that I have at this time and what I don't have at this time. And then I'm gonna ask for your guidance on uh equalize and assess mill rates on a local levy and what you're comfortable with so that we, as we're building our budgets, um it's gonna turn out the way that you feel it will be comfortable in the end. So I'm first gonna turn it over to Olivia. And Olivia is our new library director. Hello everyone. For those of you who haven't met, it's nice to officially meet you. And thank you for taking the time to speak with me today. So we're here to talk about the proposed library budget. I have given you a handout. Um you will find my business card, our new library bookmarks with the library's information on the back, as well as a summary of what is in this presentation and a copy of my proposed budget.