In it contained a section written by county assessor Michael Stalberger. For a much better summary than I can write up of take a look at the Free Press's excellent coverage here.
Now, this is where it get interesting. Because he is the first one I have ever heard in my term on the council, "Whoa little dogies" this construction boom we're in the middle of might not be continuing indefinitely.
I wrote about this right here on my campaign blog over two months ago. I started to put this piece of the puzzle together after working through a couple budget cycles on the council, and have been speaking openly about this concern over the course of the past year. If city services are already strained, the construction boom may be abating, and there's no relief in sight from the capitol in the form of local government aid, just how are we going to pay for the needed expansion of our city services?
Frankly, it's either going to have to be significant cuts or increased property taxes. I think service levels are just about where Mankato residents would like them to be. Our city government is efficient and there's not a lot of excess budgetary fat to trim. And the new construction that's going up right now is going to be bringing more residents further straining our service delivery.
We need to be taking steps now to move towards a sustainable tax base. We are building depreciation into all aspects of city finance now as we hold the levy steady, which is a great first step. But this new construction can only pay for increased service demand and new depreciation models for so long. It is going to take careful stewards with long term vision to set a course that we are going to be truly financially sustainable and not subject our resident's tax payments to the boom and bust cycles. Resiliency built into all of our systems will ensure Mankato will prosper as a 21st century city.
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