Council passes budget; tax askings rise 3.53%

    A new budget year is here, and Imperial city council members approved the city’s 2020-21 documents at Monday night’s meeting.
    Tax askings, which affect the pocketbooks of city residents, will rise 3.53% over last year’s. In dollars, that means $42,173 more than last year the city will use to meet budget obligations.
    The tax request will grow to $1,236,240 compared to the 2019-20 figure of $1,194,067. The tax request includes $365,000 for bonds for several street projects.
    The levy will rise from .6890 to .6970 (per $100 valuation).
    This year’s request is down more than half from the 10% increase last  year.
    The 2020-21 budget reflects, for the most part, 3% salary increases in employee pay levels, said Clerk/Administrator Jo Leyland. Most of the employees in administrative roles  also received 3% increases.
    Leyland, Public Works Supt. Pat Davison, Community Development Director Tyler Pribbeno and part-time Building Inspector/Zoning Officer Nick Schultz all received 3% increases.
    Police Chief Ryan Wisnieski and all of his officers saw 5% pay hikes. Two employees in public works were given 9% raises, Leyland said, because they “were both pretty low for their job class.”    
    Approval of the tax request, the annual appropriations document, an additional 1% in spending authority and the ordinance setting new salaries received 3-0 votes from Chad Yaw, Charlesa Kline and Doug Gaswick. Council member Johna Jablonski was absent.
    The 2020-21 budget year runs Oct. 1 to Sept. 30.
    According to figures from the county assessor, Imperial’s valuation took a major hike of more than $4 million, or 2.35%.
    The valuation grew the past year from $173,286,735 to $177,354,525.
    Leyland said Monday that only about $800,000 of that was from new growth.
Other business
    Several other pieces of business were handled at Monday’s council meeting.    

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