The Laramie City Council will hold a final public hearing on the Fiscal Year 2018 budget Tuesday, June 12 at 6 p.m. in the City Council chambers.

The current adjusted budget includes $29,994,257 for the general fund, $1,936,030 for the recreation center fund, $23,827,056 for the major capital construction fund, $69,318,166 for the utility fund, and $4,561,420 for the solid waste fund.

The general fund includes a property tax levy of 8 mills, which is projected to collect $1,780,000. County Assessor Grant Showacre said a mill levy is  the "tax rate" that is applied to the assessed value of a property. He said a mill means that for every $1,000 dollars of assessed value, a person pays $1.

Mayor Andrea Summerville said the focus of the budget is on maintaining operations and services.

“Our discussions have mainly centered around continuing operations and services,” Summerville said. “So making sure we have enough fire fighters and police officers and that we are maintaining those basic services as best we can.”

She said the biggest difference in the budget this year is that the city has nearly no capital improvement program.

“We’re not doing major street repairs, we’re not doing any major infrastructure projects or building or repairs or anything along those lines,” Summerville said. “That is a deviation from past years.”

Summerville said while the city has never had an extremely robust capital improvement program, this year it is essentially nonexistent.

“You only have so many dollars and cents,” Summerville said. “If it comes to a question of continuing to support public safety functions versus rebuilding a road, those are questions the City Manager and City Council have had to weigh.”

Public comment will be accepted during the hearing by anyone wishing to speak on the budget.

 

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