Hawkeye Reporter

The West Des Moines City Council will hold a public hearing at its regularly scheduled meeting on Monday, March 21, at 5:30 p.m., to review and approve the City’s proposed budget for the fiscal year beginning July 1, 2022 (FY 2022-23). The adoption of the budget is the most important action taken by elected officials each year.

The City Council is expected to maintain the city’s property tax levy rate at $10.95 per $1,000 of taxable valuation. The tax levy was lowered from $10.99 to $10.95 last year by adjusting the city’s Debt Service Levy Rate and by continued low borrowing rates and a reduction in underlying project spending. The tax levy was lowered significantly from $11.79 to $10.99 after voters approved a local option sales and services tax (LOSST) for Polk County in March 2019.

The City’s FY 2022-23 budget is comprised of basic operating expenditures totaling approximately $89.3 million, business/proprietary expenses of $78 million, debt service expenditures of $37.2 million, and capital improvement expenditures of $54.5 million. These expenditures amount to a total budget of nearly $259 million.

The FY 2022-23 Capital Improvement Plan includes:

• Stagecoach Drive – Jordan Creek Parkway to 78th Street
• Grand Avenue – Grand Prairie Parkway to 115th Street
• Grand Prairie Parkway – Grand Ave to Raccoon River Drive
• Grand Avenue – 88th to Grand Prairie Parkway
• Grand Prairie Parkway – Stagecoach Drive to Booneville Road
• County Line Road – Veterans Parkway to Orilla Road

The City will receive approximately $8.6 million in Road Use Tax funding during FY 2022-23. Approximately $5.755 million of these funds will be used for street-related expenditures (capital improvement projects and operating expenditures), and the remaining funds will cover street lighting costs and other obligations.

The City currently has 542.25 full-time equivalent positions. Fifteen new full-time staff positions are included in the proposed budget, including two police officers, two firefighters, two paramedics and two paramedic lieutenants, a logistics supervisor in Westcom, three dispatchers, an operations specialist in the traffic division, a utility locator in the sanitary sewer division, and a community development coordinator.

The proposed Operating and Capital Budgets are reviewed each year during meetings involving citizens, elected officials and City staff.

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Original source can be found here.