Fargo, North Dakota – The preliminary 2022 budget was approved on the August 2nd meeting by the West Fargo City Commission .Expenses that are funded through property taxes are froze with the approval of the preliminary budget.
Property taxes would be raised by $20.25 for every $100,000 of residential property value with the proposed budget. This equates to a $51.43 increase for a house with a median sales price of $253,988 in 2020. This increase will contribute $1,623,728 to the City’s general fund, which will be used to support services like engineering, municipal court, snow removal, library, police and fire.
The City of West Fargo has identified $102,867,377 in total expenses for the 2022 fiscal year. This is a 4.5% increase from 2021, which is lower than the current 5.4% inflation rate. Property taxes will cover 15% of these expenses, while sales tax, public utilities, service charges, franchise fees, special assessments, and other miscellaneous taxes and revenues will cover the other 85%. The budget also plans to use $1 million in reserve funds. As part of the approval, the City Commission directed staff to review expenses again to determine if additional reductions could be made by staggering employee hires, and decreasing travel and education budgets.
The increase in funding needs in 2022 represents a significant investment in public safety. It includes hiring 3 fulltime Firefighters to address the constant increase in calls for service, which rose 300% from 2017 to 2020. It also includes a Crime Analyst for the police. This position will evaluate crime data to help the department focus their efforts on high-crime areas, high-risk offenders and repeat victims. This will play a significant role in the police department’s crime prevention efforts and get useful and timely information out to the community. This also includes funding to support the increase in infrastructure that needs to be maintained and municipal services for the residential and commercial units that are added each year.
You can view the detailed 2022 preliminary budget here.
