Levy to rise 3.2 percent

• City of Worthington

Worthington City Hall (Brian Korthals/Daily Globe)

Talk about it

WORTHINGTON — After plowing through more pieces of next year’s budget on Thursday and Friday, the Worthington City Council certified its 2011 tax levy increase at a 3.2 percent.

After hearing from representatives of the Worthington Regional Economic Development Corp., Memorial Auditorium and the municipal liquor store, councilmen certified the overall levy increase of $85,498. That’s lower than the city’s pre-certified increase of 3.9 percent, and if property tax gained through recent construction is considered, it equates to a 0.9 percent tax increase for the general public.

Discussion with WREDC officials centered on the $86,000 Economic Development Authority levy council members first approved last fall. The basic concept of the levy was that the city would receive EDA levy dollars with its regular property tax payment, and would use those funds to contract with the WREDC for proposed economic development projects. Some money would also go in WREDC’s general fund.

In exchange, the WREDC surrendered its usual $41,000 annual contribution from the city and gave council more oversight of how it uses funds.

WREDC Manager Glenn Thuringer detailed the corporation’s accomplishments Thursday, citing increased land for business expansion and Minnesota West courses that have been “tailored to local employers’’ needs.

Still, salary and benefits make up more than 50 percent of the WREDC’s budget, plus the cost of the annual audit and travel expenses to conferences, some of them “fairly high-cost.” Some of the EDA money is funneled to one-time expenses like office furniture, while the rest goes to marketing materials and other initiatives. The WREDC has requested $70,000 for the upcoming year, though council has not yet approved the expenditure.

The new year-round schedule at the Memorial Auditorium and Performing Arts Center means operational and personnel costs will be about $24,567 more than in past years, though auditorium manager Margaret Hurlbut Vosburgh hopes some of that will be recouped by revenues from extra shows.

Council members decided Friday to bond for the auditorium project costs, then use existing reserves to pay off the bonds.

At the Worthington Municipal Liquor Store, new manager Dan Wycoff has plans to add a credit card terminal and more energy-efficient lights.

“Everything’s in line for a 6 percent increase in profit sales for the year,” he said.

Prairie View Golf Links has also seen better revenues, with the duplicated head count of people using the course increasing by 4,000. The 2011 PVGL budget is expected to have $20,000 less in expenditures than the current budget.

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