ENM Council adopts 2019 budget

The Elko New Market City Council adopted three resolutions at its Thursday, Dec. 20, meeting. One was a resolution approving the city’s 2019 budget, the second was to approve the 2018 tax levy, collectable in 2019 and the third was to approve use of debt service fund balances to cover under levied bonds.

The council did do a last minute change as it reduced to 1.5 percent the amount of contingency in the general fund, which had originally been 7.2 percent. With the reduction a typical home ($263,300) will see an increase of 2.8 percent, or paying $32.22 in taxes for the year. Before the reduction a house would have seen an increase of 4.6 percent. It was noted that due to property values some homes will see a lower increase and others will see a larger increase.

Council member Joe Julius requested that he would like to see the budget reduced. He cited how residents are facing increases in the city, county and other areas and felt the cost of living in Elko New Market was too high at times.

Council member Josh Berg asked about reducing the number to 1 percent.

Mayor Bob Crawford noted that past councils had a little bit in the contingency fund to work with and were able to leave the Local Government Aid alone or for other projects. He suggested they go with 1.5 percent and keep it at that for the next couple of years.

Berg said if they went with............

To see more on this story pick up the December 27, 2018 print editin of The New Prague Times.