The city of International Falls is proposing an 8% hike to its 2025 budget.
Spending is pegged at over $19.1 million.
The preliminary tax hike is down from an initial 15% hike considered when budget discussions started earlier this year.
Finance Officer Emma Rud says a cut in airport funding was necessary to reduce the increase.
“The airport was requesting an additional $129,000 over their 2024 appropriation to bring it to a total of $480,587 for 2025,” says Rud.
“But after lengthy discussion, the committee did not feel that it could support funding it at that amount, given all other city departmental budgets had to take major cuts the past two years.”
The airport is partly funded through a 50-50 arrangement between the city and the county.
The city has argued that its residents are unfairly taxed as they are hit twice.
“We just felt that it would be a disservice to the citizens to continue funding at that level given what they (the airport) were asking for in 2025,” says Rud.
The city will finalize its budget in December.
“I really feel like we left no stone unturned in this process, and measures were taken to get us from that initial 14.99% levy increase down to the 8% levy increase,” says Rud.
“I truly believe that this is the best preliminary figure we could have hoped for, and I think everyone who made sacrifices and their respective budgets to get us to where we are today.”
