By Jeff Johnson
The Northfield City Council last week approved a preliminary tax levy for 2023 with an 18.5% increase over 2022. That increase can go down, but not up, when the final budget for 2023 is approved later this year. City Administrator Ben Martig, along with Mayor Rhonda Pownell, appeared on KYMN earlier this week to help explain the dynamics of property tax levies and why such an increase is needed.
For Northfield, a relatively small industrial and commercial tax base means a larger burden on the residential tax rates. Expanding the industrial and commercial base is a high priority, and the hiring of two new employees in the department helped raise last year’s levy by double digit percentages, but it is also paying dividends this year:
The Council has actually invested in more staff to help with economic development to try and grow that. Just as an example we got about an $800,000 downtown commercial grant off of one of the new staff people, both new staff were working on that grant and that’s a pretty good return on investment immediately in the first year. And we’re also working with businesses like Cardinal Glass which is looking at some expansion work as well as Aurora Pharmaceutical.
Along with increased payroll, road and infrastructure work has led to a disproportionate increase in spending. Martig said inflation has hit the construction industry hard:
We’ve seen debt increases primarily because we’re an older and fully developed city so we have to replace infrastructure: streets and the pipes under them. So we’ve been reinvesting in our buildings and our streets and over the last couple decades those costs have been growing well over inflation rates so that’s been dragging oil and construction costs dramatically higher than inflation.
A full time Fire Chief, if approved, adds to expenses. The city is also looking at additional funding for our park system, which Pownell said has been underfunded for some time.
You’ll be hearing more about the budget and the levy as the council continues to fine tune it before its final vote in December.
Northfield League of Women Voters hosts candidate forums
Northfield’s Chapter of the League of Women Voters will host a candidate forum this Saturday featuring candidates running in local elections.
The first forum is at 9:00 AM for the Minnesota Senate 58 race. At 10:15 is a forum for the Minnesota House 58A and 58B races. The Northfield City Council Forum is at 11:45 AM and the Northfield School Board Forum is at 1:00.
Alyssa Herzog-Melby, one of the organizers of the event for the League, said, “Because we’re a nonpartisan organization every single candidate for all the races has been invited to attend.”
The event will be held in the Council Chambers at City Hall. Doors will open at 8:45 AM. All are welcome to attend and feel free to bring your questions to the candidates. Herzog-Melby explained the guidelines for doing that:
Come, sign in, grab a seat and during the forum we’ll actually be soliciting questions from the audience about issues that are important to them, questions they have for candidates. Those questions are delivered to a question facilitating team that groups the questions, maybe revises them or edits them, just to be sure that the questions are indeed nonpartisan and not biased toward any candidate nor attacking any candidate.
If you would like to know more about the League or the forums on Saturday, visit lwvnorthfieldmn.org.
Rice County Area United Way awards grants to CAC and Neighbors United
Rice County Area United Way has announced that they have given out their first two $1,000 microgrant awards. United Way’s microgrant program was launched in August to award $100 to $1,000 to grantees bimonthly for urgent needs. The first awards will go to the Community Action Center and Rice County Neighbors United, or Vecinos Unidos.
The grant to the CAC will support a new program providing halal meats for Somali Muslim residents in Faribault. According to a statement from the CAC, they have seen an increase in the number of Somali residents seeking nutritional resources as the cost of food remains high. The grant will fund a pilot program to provide culturally appropriate foods. The CAC will coordinate with five halal butchers and offer $10 vouchers to 100 families so they can purchase halal meats from those butchers.
The Rice County Neighbors United grant will support the Viking Terrace community’s new Residents’ Association in Northfield. The funding will support basic needs of the organization including copies, newsletters, childcare, and the collection of information to send to attorneys representing residents. Neighbors United has been supporting the Viking Terrace Residents’ Association and acts as the fiscal sponsor for the association.
The next United Way microgrant will be awarded in November. The deadline to apply is October
15. For more information about the microgrant program visit ricecountyunitedway.org.
Jeff Johnson is the owner of KYMN Radio and the host of The Morning Show. You can reach him at jeff@kymnradio.net.
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