St. Joseph City Commissioners have approved the budget for the coming fiscal year. The $42.6 million spending plan considered Monday night envisions General Fund revenues of about $11.9 million and expenditures of $10.9 million. The remaining $1 million will be mostly be used for capital projects. City Manager John Hodgson told us while the city is fortunate to have a strong tax base, there have been challenges.
“It’s taken a long time to fill positions, which makes it difficult to get the work done sometimes, or it may call for overtime that you’d like to be able to avoid,” Hodgson said. “We’ve also had some high bids that have come in. We have materials and services coming in. It’s difficult to get some contracts bid at all, and we’re also seeing some operating supplies.”
Hodgson says a major focus is on those capital projects this coming year. Among them are improvements to the Howard Trail and Howard Trail pedestrian bridge, Maids of the Mist work, the Dickinson Park restrooms, and parking lot improvements. The millage rate paid by residents will not increase. In fact, it will go down by about one tenth of a mill.
