Stacy facing major tax hike for 2003

By Barbara Brown
Stacy residents could be in for a tax shock mid-month if the council ends up approving the proposed $338,260 budget, which could increase property taxes by 66 percent.
According to early estimations, the increase could mean more than $300 per house next year.
The council worked for several hours last Thursday night discussing the budget and its impact on the citizens.
The most significant increase is nearly $20,000 for public safety. The council decided to double the amount of time sheriffís deputy Brandon Thyen is in Stacy.
ìWhen we know there is a problem and he canít be here, itís not going to get fixed,î said councilman John Walz.
The council hopes to work with residents in Sunrise Estates and with the sheriffís office to reduce crime in that area.
Thyen had spent about four hours per day in Stacy. He was contracted for 1,461 hours for the entire year at a cost of $46,000.
The times of his patrol vary and he can only be in one place at a time, said Chief Deputy Todd Rivard.
Rivard said increasing Thyenís hours in Stacy improves coverage for the city and helps the deputy stay on top of investigations, criminal activity and traffic problems.
To improve coverage, the council agreed to increase the hours to 2,080, or full-time.
Taylors Falls has about one service call per day and in 2002 contracted for 3,120 hours at a cost of $98,000. The city has 1.5 full-time deputies.
Rush City contracts for about 6,240 hours a year at a cost of $196,000. The city has three full-time deputies.
While the change in the deputy contract is the highest in the budget, other smaller items contributed to the tax increase.
Street improvements were budgeted for $15,000, up more than $4,000 from 2002. Several city streets are in need of repair, although a list of prioritized streets was not developed.
Employee wage increases accounted for more than $10,000 in the budget.
Ice and snow removal was given a $15,000 budget, up from $10,000 in 2002. The council does not expect to pay the entire amount for snow removal. In 2002, the city used only $4,225 of the line itemís allowance.
Overall, the city expects to receive $122,577 in property taxes.
In 2001, the city budgeted to receive $72,822 in taxes, but only received $52,873.66.
The 2002 property tax budget was set at $81,791 and the city has received about half that amount so far. The second half tax billing is due in October.
Council members were concerned about the amount of taxes not paid to the city.
The council will look into why taxes werenít paid and who still owes taxes from previous years, said council member Katie Davidson.
On top of the regular tax increase for the budget, citizens also could be looking at an increase in water and sewer rates.
The high cost of installing a new water tower, upgrading the cityís sewer system, possibly extending water and sewer south on CR 30 and a possible connection to a planned regional waste water treatment plant has made the council closely examine its water and sewer budget.
In previous years, the city never separated water and sewer line items from the general budget, but with impending expensive project, the council asked that they be separated.
The cityís water and sewer rates have remained the same for nearly 10 years.
Over the years, residents were charged $15 per quarter for the first 10,000 and $1 for each 1,000 gallons after that.
Light commercial and heavy industrial users are supposed to pay a higher quarterly fee, but the city has only been charging residential rates for years, said clerk Sharon Payne.
Payne also told the council that miscalculated usage could be due to the fact that more than 50 meter readings in the city are consistently irregular when compared to the cityís maintenance department readings.
She said the cause of those miscalculations could be due to broken meters.
The council asked Payne to find out what qualifies as heavy industrial users and light commercial customers in the city and see that they are properly charged for the water they use.
The city must approve a preliminary budget by Sept. 15.

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