The Mount Vernon City Council approved the budget for the 2022-23 fiscal year. The levy rate for the city will remain at 12.99 per $1,000.
There was also a slight roll backs for property tax rates for residential property, agricultural property, industrial property and multi-family properties.
Properties could see a decrease in property taxes, if valuation of home or property were not changed.
General expenditures for 2022-23 were estimated at $3,056,000, business and enterprise fund expenditures were estimated at $2,628,639. The total overall expenditures for the year were $14,229,682, with estimated total revenues from all sources at $15,590,482. The city also has roughly $5 million in potential capital projects to be tackled in fiscal year 2023, with some of the expenditures for uncompleted projects moving forward to this fiscal year from last year.
Mount Vernon’s levy rate ranks the city 572 out of the 941 municipalities in Iowa. There are 571 communities with smaller levy rates, and 369 with larger levy rates. The average levy rate is $12.05 per $1,000.
Mount Vernon is the 854th largest community in Iowa, with a consolidated tax rate (all levies, school, county and others) of 165 out of 941.
There were no public comments at the budget hearing.
Mount Vernon council member Scott Rose said that the city maintaining a roughly 50 percent spending capacity has helped them weather the COVID-19 pandemic and derecho.
Council member Stephanie West commended the city for keeping the tax levy steady.
City purchasing another hybrid vehicle for police fleetThe City of Mount Vernon approved the purchase of another hybrid vehicle for the Mount Vernon-Lisbon Police Department for roughly $65,000.
Mount Vernon-Lisbon Police chief Doug Shannon said that the department replaces vehicles on a five-year rotation plan, but orders for new vehicles are being made roughly 30 weeks in advance.
“Our first hybrid we’ve had for more than 4,000 miles, and it has been working out very well,” Shannon said.
Shannon said the department has six vehicles in the fleet, with two of the vehicles being one person vehicles, and four of them being a vehicle used by two officers, which adds to the mileage and wear and tear on the vehicles.
The gas savings seen by the current hybrid impressed Shannon.
“There have been some adjustment to the no engine sound for the vehicle and some of it’s handling, but it is a very nice vehicle and we’re looking to add another to our fleet,” Shannon said.