City of Kimball is shooting for net zero property tax increase

Budget season has begun as the end of the fiscal year approaches and Kimball City Council held the first budget workshop on Thursday, Aug. 2 to review each department’s proposed budget.

Council and department heads were pleased, though cautious, with the direction the budget is taking. Estimated sales tax, based on current trends, for the coming fiscal year is conservatively set at $465,000.

“This year we anticipate about $500,000 and at $465,000 we are still below that,” City Administrator Dan Dean said. “I like to be conservative because I don’t like to spend money we don’t have.”

Following a review of each department’s preliminary draft, council recommended few changes.

Breaking down the sales tax distribution by department, Fire Maintenance receives the largest percentage, 20, with the Event Center receiving 17.86 percent of the annual sales tax.

The cemetery gets 17.07 percent of the sales tax and the library follows at 17 percent. Parks receive 16.07 percent, the General Fund gets ten percent and the Kimball Public Swimming Pool is subsidized with just two percent of the annual sales tax.

While those numbers seem low, 20 percent of the estimated sales tax for the coming fiscal year totals $93,000 and two percent totals $9,300.

Because valuations increased throughout the county last year, the City of Kimball decreased their mill levy to compensate, a measure that could be reversed this coming year.

“Net zero tax is what we are looking at,” Kimball Mayor Keith Prunty said.