GRAND FORKS – Property taxes paid to the city of Grand Forks will stay roughly the same in 2025 after the City Council reduced the mill levy by 4.13 mills in the next budget.
The council approved its final budget and held a public hearing during its regular meeting Monday night.
For the average property owner in Grand Forks, city property taxes will stay about the same as they did for the 2024 budget, since the mill reduction matches what would be roughly a net-zero change in a tax bill. Since the budget was first presented to the City Council in July, the mill levy has
lowered again
by 2.93 mills in the preliminary budget,
to now being lowered by 4.13 mills from 2024’s budget.
The city will levy a total of roughly $27.1 million, or 92.2 mills. The total budget is $299 million between general fund, enterprise funds and capital improvement expenditures the city plans for 2025. The mill levy is used as a multiplier to the taxable value of a property to determine what is owed to a taxing entity.
The chief drivers behind the biggest reduction in the levy in the last five years are reducing the airport mill levy by half, meaning
less funds for the airport to pay for capital improvement projects,
and reducing a cost-of-living adjustment for city employees. The preliminary budget had proposed funding a cost-of-living adjustment to match 75% of the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ Employment Cost Index, but the council voted 4-3 to drop the match to 50%, reducing the budget by approximately $356,000.
Employee representatives said that matching the cost-of-living adjustment to 75% of the employment cost index is key to helping with recruitment, retention and the ability of city staff to do their jobs.
“We understand the City Council’s goal to reduce mills, to not inflict any impact to taxpayers. However, we do not support reducing the (employment cost index) below a 75% match to achieve that goal,” said Shelia Schreiner, president of the employee representatives. “Keeping the salary plan competitive is crucial. Over three years we have lost nearly
55% of our workforce; this is a significant amount of job knowledge that has left the city
and places a demand upon our remaining employees to fill the gaps and train new staff.”
Vice President of Employee Representatives Joe Dewey added that keeping the salary plan competitive is crucial as future employees hired after Jan. 1, 2025, will no longer have access to the North Dakota Public Employees Retirement System’s defined benefit plan. All new public employees will have a 401(k)-style plan and not the previous pension-style plan.
“When you talk about our pay, you can’t start the sentence ‘when we have great employees’ and then discuss how to shortchange our plan,” Dewey said. “Our city employees continue to do more with less on a daily basis. This year there was a request for 17 new positions throughout the city and none of those were filled.”
Members of the council have mixed feelings about the salary plan. As part of the 2024 budget, the city adopted a new salary plan and
moved to a step-and-grade system in which all positions are given one of 28 grades
on variables such as scope, complexity, the knowledge required and supervisory role, among many others. Then, individual employees are graded A through R on variables like length of service and performance within their position grade.
The plan updated an over
20-year-old salary plan that many had issues
with its lack of clarity and flexibility when the economy moved fast. Similar plans are used by many government agencies.
“I think that we need to find balance and I don’t believe this salary plan or the implementation of this year provides this balance,” City Council President Dana Sande said. “The city of Grand Forks’ jobs aren’t supposed to be the most sought-after positions in our community. That’s not how this is supposed to work.”
The city is one the top 10 largest employers in Grand Forks and employs more than 500, according to city bonding documentation.
Both Sande and council member Rebecca Osowski motioned to appropriate specific community development dollars to the Northlands Rescue Mission, removing the funds from the competitive grant pool upon which
the Community Advisory Committee and City Council decide.
Both of their motions failed, leaving all the budget money in the grant pool and open to a variety of community organizations and nonprofits.
Residents will on average see a 4% increase in their city utility bill, like water and trash fees, in 2025. That equates to a roughly $3.54 increase for the average user.
Once the levy is certified and sent to the county auditor, tax statements will be calculated and sent at the end of December. Property taxes are then due by March 1. If paid before Feb. 15, a 5% discount will be applied.
In other news, the council:
Voigt covers government in Grand Forks and East Grand Forks.
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