It won't be formally adopted until November 20, but the Sturgeon Bay City Council Tuesday approved the proposed city budget for 2013.
Sturgeon Bay City Administrator Steve McNeil says no city services were eliminated to balance the budget. He says the spending plan includes some staffing reductions but they were accomplished through attrition and reorganization and not layoffs.
McNeil says another big thing they were able to do was keep the Fund Balance -- a city savings account for emergency spending -- at 35% of the operating budget.
In terms of the tax rate, McNeil says the city is still waiting for two pieces of information -- namely assessed value and Tax Increment District apportionment -- but using last year's numbers the tax rate will go up 1.2%. That would translate into a tax increase of $9.45 for the owner of a $100,000 home.
One of the significant items in the 2013 capital improvements plan is a $500,000 project to replace lighting at the city's athletic fields, a cost the city will share with Sturgeon Bay Utilities and the Sturgeon Bay School District.
A public hearing on the budget is scheduled for November 20 at 6 p.m. at City Hall.
