The Grantsville City Council unanimously approved Wednesday a $4.7 million budget for the 2015-16 fiscal year, which includes a 12.5 percent increase in spending.
The final budget includes a spending increase of $527,868 over the $4.2 million 2014-15 budget, the majority of which is represented by a $279,648 transfer to capital projects.
Mayor Brent Marshall said the transfer would be put aside for upcoming projects including a new police station and replacing about 3.5 miles of cast iron water main under Main Street after announcing the preliminary budget on May 6.
Marshall said the certified tax rate will be .002585, a 20 percent reduction from the previous year’s tax rate of .003355. While the tax decrease appears significant, rising property assessments means taxpayers should pay a similar amount, he said.
“This is an equalization, straight across,” Marshall said.
Councilman Scott Stice agreed the change in rate is unlikely to translate into savings for taxpayers.
“All of our house values went up,” he said. “We don’t want anybody thinking their taxes are going down when they won’t.”
The city is anticipating $1.2 million in property tax revenue for the 2015-16 budget, an increase of $163,268 over the previous year.
In addition to increased property tax revenue, the adopted budget includes $200,000 in public safety impact fees, after putting none in the 2014-15 budget. The city also anticipates $98,000 in property sales and a $45,000 increase in sales tax revenue.
The 2015-16 budget includes a 4.5 percent increase in spending on employee salary and wages across all departments. Salaries and wages total about 32 percent ($1.5 million) of the city’s budget.
Spending on employee benefits will also rise about 5.2 percent throughout the entire city government, from $520,874 in 2014-15 to $547,700 in the 2015-16 adopted budget.
Upgrades for the city’s computer equipment, services and software will increase the city’s costs by $40,600 in the 2015-16 budget.
The budget also calls for a $33,960 increase in the city’s cemetery budget, with $60,000 earmarked for the main cemetery extension and $45,000 for capital projects, including the planting of trees and installation of paths and sprinkler systems.