By Logan Wells, News Director | Logan@kymnradio.net
The final approval of budgets and tax levies for local governments is scheduled for the beginning of December. Each newscast this week will have a story about the City of Northfield’s tax increase to help explain the issue. Find the full series on our website under the “Guide to the Northfield City Budget.”
Today, we are discussing the cost drivers behind this year’s tax increase, of which there are two items: the Ice Arena and Staff Wages.
Ice Arena:
Let’s start with the Ice Arena. With the project’s construction approved this spring, the council also approved the total cost to taxpayers, which was $22.9 million. If all else were held equal, the city’s overall tax levy would have to increase by 7.5% to pay for the arena. The arena is also receiving a per capita contribution from the City of Dundas, as well as a $4.8 million donation from the Hockey Association and a donation of the land. ($2 million of the donation is for lowering the cost to taxpayers, while the remainder is for additional items to the structure.)
Listen to the News:
Northfield City Council member Chad Beumer stated that the Ice Arena was an important part of the community and worth the cost:
“Accessibility is horrible in the current arena. Energy efficiency is horrible, the locker room situation is awful, and you know the equipment in the building itself is quite frankly, getting to the end of their useful life…” – Chad Beumer, Northfield City Councilor; A Guide to the Northfield City Budget
Beumer said that he reached that conclusion while campaigning last year:
“So, upon door knocking, that’s when I kind of think it was probably shortly before the primary, when I kind of made up my mind that I would take on support with it because it seemed like most of the people I was talking to. We’re in favor of it and not necessarily happy about how we went through it, but in favor of it.” – Chad Beumer, Northfield City Councilor; A Guide to the Northfield City Budget
Staff Wages:
The other factor contributing to the tax increase is staff wages. City Administrator Ben Martig stated that they conduct wage studies of similar cities to determine employee pay to help attract and retain new staff. He noted the Police Department as one example of where attracting staff has been particularly difficult:
“Staying at the middle of the market does allow us to attract and retain talent. And if you start to slide, we won’t be able to have the talent at the table that we do. And that translates to real meaningful impacts to the public. I mean, that’s a police chief for your city.” – Ben Martig, Northfield City Administrator; A Guide to the Northfield City Budget
The city policy is to adjust staff wages to keep up with the middle of the market for comparable jobs.
Furthermore, the city maintains several union contracts with Police Officers and Public Works staff, which limit the ability to adjust wages during the budget cycle:
“We have some police labor, which is pretty much every police department is unionized in Minnesota. They do have what’s called binding arbitration, right? So if you can’t negotiate, it goes to arbitration, and they decide what happens. So that does tie the hands from, I guess, a management standpoint a little bit. But probably reinforces the importance of relying on things like those pay studies to justify it,” – Ben Martig, Northfield City Administrator; A Guide to the Northfield City Budget
The union contracts include a 3% cost-of-living adjustment each year of the current contract.
While the tax levy is set to increase 9.9% it is not set to keep up with inflation costs and the city had to cut over $1 million from its budget. Tomorrow, will explore more about why the budget cuts were necessary and what was cut from the city’s budget.
Newscasts on KYMN air on weekdays at 6am, 7am, 8:30am, Noon, 3pm, and 5pm. If you miss it live, you can subscribe on your preferred podcast app:
> Click here to listen on Spotify
> Click here to listen on Apple Podcast
Do you have a news tip or press release? Send it to us email: Logan@kymnradio.net
