Area residents will soon have a chance to have their say as Mower County, the city of Austin and Austin Public Schools put the final touches on their proposed 2015 budgets.

The city’s truth in taxation meeting will be the first. It’s scheduled for 6 p.m. Tuesday. The district’s is at 6 p.m. Dec. 8, and the county’s is 6 p.m. on Dec. 11.

City

Council members set the city’s tax levy to $4.3 million for 2015, which is about 4.98 percent higher than this year’s levy, to add 1.5 jobs, cover increasing costs and maintain services. The council also set the city’s budget at $31.2 million for next year.

City officials are looking to increase the city budget by $205,000 to help pay for a new full-time librarian and to move a part-time building inspector position up to full time.

The city of Austin has cut staff from about 180 positions in the 1980s to about 139 positions this year, about two positions annually over the past 25 or so years. Yet recent retirements and other vacancies have forced city staff to look at Austin’s operations.

Librarian Gayle Heimer recently announced her retirement, which goes into effect in April 2015. Austin Public Library Executive Director Ann Hokanson told the council in June that she would have to hire two full-time librarians to replace Heimer, who did multiple jobs for the library.

Other changes to next year’s budget include $1,000 more for the Coalition of Greater Minnesota Cities, a lobbying group that represents outstate cities at the Capitol. The city expects to pay $52,000 next year to the coalition.

The Welcome Center in Austin will receive $7,500 in funding next year, up from $5,000, after Welcome Center Executive Director Jake Vela asked for a grant increase due to a rising need for services in the community. The extra funds will come out of the city’s contingency fund.

School

The Austin Public Schools Board will meet Monday, Dec. 8, 2014, for the annual truth in taxation public meeting at the Austin City Council Chambers, as part of its regular meeting.

The 2015 maximum levy was approved at a 5.5 percent increase by the Austin Public Schools Board in September. The levy is up from 2013 and 2014 but below 2012 and will increase by about $361,675.

One of the main increases will be in health and safety, according to Finance and Operations Director Mark Stotts in the September report.

Projects will be completed like asbestos removal and food code inspections, which are examples of projects the school is required by the state Legislature to complete.

The Austin Public School District’s growth in students also accounts for some of the increase.

The 2013-2014 payable levy is about $6.5 million, while the 2014-2015 payable levy currently is about $6.9 million. That is is still under the roughly $7 million of the 2012-2013 payable levy.

The board will make a final decision to approve the levy by its 6 p.m. Dec. 8 truth in taxation meeting, which will be held in the council chambers at city hall, 500 Fourth Avenue Northeast.

County

Last week, Commissioner Jerry Reinartz said the finance committee is still working to trim its 2015 budget ahead of the county’s truth in taxation meeting Dec. 11.

A number of state shifts drove increases for the 2015 Mower County levy. The board approved the maximum increase at 7 percent, which would increase the levy by about $1.2 million to a total of about $18.6 million.

“We’re going to do our best to get it down from 7 [percent],” Reinartz said in September.

If the county granted all requests from department heads and outside agencies, a 10.6 percent levy increase would have been required. However, the finance committee of Reinartz and Commissioner Tony Bennett whittled down department requests and are recommending the county freeze funding to outside agencies and not give money to new outside agencies.

Bennett stated the 7 percent increase is not artificially high, so it may be hard to come down much further.

A year ago, Reinartz and Bennett voted against the county’s 1 percent increase for 2014, arguing the board could have kept the levy flat. Planning for 2015 is much different, as Austin residents could see increases from all directions.

Last year, increasing ag values meant farmers felt much of the tax changes while residential saw their taxes decrease. With ag land making up about 60 percent of the county levy, County Coordinator Craig Oscarson said farmers could again notice significant changes on their tax statements.

State shifts accounted for much of the increased budget need. Though the state actually increased county program aid from $206 million to $209 million, the formula for distributing that aid means that Mower County will get $323,000 less. Oscarson said several other agriculture-heavy counties, like Freeborn, also saw aid reductions. County program aid is based on ability to pay, and Oscarson said the increases in ag land values in recent years shifted the aid to metro counties.

“It’s a shift,” Oscarson previously told the board. “The problem is there’s winners and losers with that formula.”

The county is hiring three part-time employees in the jail, Health and Human Services and another in the assessor’s office, and they’ll make up an $40,000 budget changes.

The Mower County Fair Board requested a four season building be built sooner than planned, but county officials say that’s unlikely to be approved.