The Perry City Council approved their certified fiscal year 2021 budget at their most recent meeting, and it has officially been submitted to the county and state for final approval.

City Administrator Sven Peterson says it was a productive budget season, and he feels like they managed to get all the necessities covered and keep the various departments happy for the next year. He adds, the most important figure the public looks at each year is the tax levy rate, which did increase by about 13-cents to $17.93 per $1,000 taxable value. However, he said most of that increase was due to factors out of the City’s hands, and he feels the end result is a budget residents can get behind.

“A lot of work goes into that budget, and we do everything we can to keep that levy rate as low as possible for our residents and businesses. So I’ve got to give a shout-out to (Finance Officer) Susie (Moorhead) especially, and all of our department heads for being fiscally responsible and working very hard to put forward a budget that is a responsible, transparent budget for us.”

Peterson points out that the biggest City projects for the coming year didn’t adversely affect the budget, as each is being paid almost entirely through a separate source: the airport runway extension through the Federal Aviation Administration; the 1st Street overlay and restriping by the Department of Transportation; the citywide asphalt overlay through a special City account; and the McCreary Community Building renovation through a state loan. The FY21 budget anticipates $11.2 million in expenditures, and $13 million in revenue. To learn more about this and other City of Perry topics, click the link below to listen to the recent Perry Fareway Let’s Talk Dallas County program with Peterson.

https://www.raccoonvalleyradio.com/2020/03/17/lets-talk-dallas-county-3-17-2020-sven-peterson/