The Jefferson City Council recently held its annual priority budget workshop for the 2020 fiscal year.

City Administrator Mike Palmer says the Council members get a list of items and topics that they rank in order of importance. Following the survey, the Council works on the list as a whole.

“Some of the priorities that looked pretty straightforward got a lot of discussion time, which is really good (and) that’s what we want to see. Because so often maybe there’s somebody has a different idea what’s important versus somebody else. This way we can come together and come to a general agreement.”

The most important item, since it started appearing on the list in 2014, was housing. Palmer says the City has started to address the priority by having the Council pass a ten-year tax abatement for multi-family housing and are looking at other projects, such as: upper-story living in the downtown square and the City-owned vacant residential lots. 

“But without this being a high priority it may not get the attention that is really needs. It is an ongoing thing. It always comes to the top because, especially our Council members, they’re hearing from people who move to town that housing is very difficult to find especially certain price ranges.”

Other priorities that had lengthy discussions included code enforcement, drainage improvements, and the animal shelter. Click the link below to see the full list of the priorities and the rankings each received.