City Council passes FY 18 budget

The Havre City Council voted unanimously at its budget hearing Wednesday night to approve the proposed $18.7 million budget for Fiscal year 2018, along with five resolutions to levy and assess taxes for maintenance and operations. 

  Before the meeting, City Clerk and Finance Director Doug Kaercher said the proposed budget was “pretty frugal” and is fiscally sound. 

He added that the proposal is a less-than $20,000 increase from last year’s budget. Kaercher said the increased appropriation in the general fund will be used to replace a fire engine. He said the city is hoping to get a grant to replace a fire engine and the additional money appropriated will go toward providing matching funds for the grant. 

The budget, Kaercher said, includes $13 million from enterprise funds, comprising water and sewer fees, and $2.6 million from property taxes. 

  Council members also voted unanimously to pass five resolutions to levy and assess taxes to defray the cost of street maintenance, maintaining street lights, maintenance of the Bullhook drainage and solid waste disposal. 

The resolution to levy and assess taxes for maintaining streets for the city of Havre says each lot, parcel and piece of land within city limits will pay a tax based on the amount of street front footage for the 2017 to 2018 fiscal year. In all, the tax would bring in $579,581 for the city. 

Council passed a resolution to levy and assess a tax on property within city limits to defray the cost of maintaining the Bullhook drainage system. The drainage system begins in Saddle Butte, runs into the city near Havre High School and extends through the city. The resolution says $201,823 will be raised by levying and assessing a tax on lots, pieces and parcels of land within the city based on total actual square footage for improved property and a one-acre cap for improved property.  

The other resolutions are for maintaining street lights within the city and covering the cost of collecting solid waste — garbage collection.

Another resolution was unanimously passed by council fixing annual tax levies on property within Havre for the upcoming fiscal year at 230.81 mills, of which 139.59 mills will go into the city’s general fund. Another 42.39 mills will go to the Permissive Medical Levy, used to offset the cost of health insurance for city employees, 36.19 mills for the city ambulance service and 10.89 mills for the Havre-Hill County Library. Another 1.8 mills will go toward comprehensive insurance.