Council gives final approval to budget

by Marianne Gasaway

Clear Lake city leaders gave final approval Monday night to their plan to keep the local tax rate unchanged from its current rate of $9.70 per $1,000 of taxable valuation.

The City Council held a public hearing to consider the budget presented by Director of Finance Creighton Schmidt.

Schmidt reported that for seven consecutive fiscal years the City’s share of the tax rate has either declined or remained constant, without an increase.

The taxable valuation for the 2023 fiscal year continues the positive trend of growth in the community.With its $9.70 tax rate for 2023, Clear Lake will have the fifth lowest tax rate in the State of Iowa for cities with a population greater than 4,000.

The taxable valuation for fiscal year 2023 is $745,625,409, which is a $21,927,222 increase (3 percent) from fiscal year 2022. This is despite a commercial, industrial and multi-family residential rollback set at 54.13 percent, which is a decrease from fiscal year 2022’s rate of 56.41 percent.

The recommended tax rate of $9.70 per $1,000 of taxable valuation would result in a tax bill for City government services of $1,060 in 2022-23 for a residential property with an assessed valuation of $200,000 (with Homestead Credit).  The property tax impact would be approximately $45 a year less for a residential property with an assessed valuation of $200,000 in

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Clear Lake.

The proposed fiscal year 2023 budget reflects total expenditures among the various programs of $19.4 million.  Of that total, $10.5 million is directed to operations and maintenance; $8 million toward capital; and roughly $850,000 to debt service.  Schmidt said the projected ending case balance for June 30, 2023 in the General Fund is $5,996,248, which is roughly 64 percent of the General Fund operating budget.

The single largest source of revenue for the City is its property tax.  In fiscal year 2023, property taxes will represent roughly 40 percent of total revenues.

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