As Iola City Council members continue to hammer out the city’s spending plan for 2024, much remains to be decided.
Budget talks began in earnest at the Council’s June 12 meeting and will continue Monday.
Much of the talk at the first session centered on how much wiggle room remained with Iola’s general fund, and whether — as has been proposed — to implement another hefty property tax hike for the second year in a row.
City Administrator Matt Rehder told Council members austere budget planning in recent years has come at a cost, mainly by preventing departments from setting aside funds for equipment reserves.
Tacking on a 5½-mill property tax increase would bring in roughly $160,000, and would allow for such things as the Fire Department to begin saving up for construction of a new storage facility for some of its equipment, and to replace equipment such as new gas masks and airpacks.
The proposal didn’t sit well with Councilman Carl Slaugh.
“My bottom line, I would not like to see a mill levy increase,” Slaugh said. “I think we should deal with whatever increased (funding) comes from our higher assessed valuation for next year.”
If a city’s assessed valuation increases, it means more dollars per mill.
Rehder said he expected Iola’s valuation to go up, but not substantially, and not enough to cover what is needed for each department that relies on the general fund.
“I feel like where we are expense-wise in our general fund, is that these are reasonable (budget) requests,” Rehder said. “This is not an expense problem. This is a revenue problem.”
Council members debated the urgency of replacing personal protective equipment, such as airpacks.
Iola Fire Chief Corey Isbell noted equipment such as that has a shelf life before it risks being decertified, and thus must be replaced.
And while the city has used grant funds for such gear in the past, that revenue isn’t guaranteed, because grants have become highly competitive, Isbell noted.
In fact, the last such grant Iola received for bunker gear was more than 10 years ago, Isbell added.
That debate touched a nerve with Councilwoman Joelle Shallah.
