On Monday evening members of the Plymouth Common Council conducted a public hearing on the pre-adoption of the 2016 budget.
Next year’s budget is $12,549,509 and increase of 2.79% from this year’s. Included in the budget is a 2% across the board pay raise for hourly, department heads and elected officials along with fire and police. There are three new police vehicles, $40,000 for the Marshall County Economic Development Corp. $68,000 for promotion of the city which Mayor Senter has designated at $5,000 each for Encore Performing Arts, Heartland Artist and Ancilla, $2,000 for the Yellow River Festival, $8,000 for Heminger House Shelter, $1,000 for the Mayor’s Youth Council, $35,000 for the Boys and Girls Club and $7,000 of discretionary funds. Also in the budget is $60,000 for acquisition, $7,000 for trees and $100,000 for the second phase of city signage.
There were only a couple of comments during the public hearing. Councilman Wayne Smith said, “I’m very proud of the budget process. I think the department heads and clerk treasurer did a great job on holding the line and keeping taxes down.” Councilman Mike Delp agreed with Smith’s comments and Bill Walters, a candidate for City Council at Large said, “Everything there seems to be pretty much the norm and it appears the department heads did a good job.”
Formal adoption of the 2016 City Budget will be during their September 28th meeting.
