Troy weighs $3.39 million budget

Troy City Councilors gave their approval to a $3.39 million final* budget last week.

After presenting the financial road map, which represents a roughly $540,000 increase over last year’s budget, during an Aug. 31 meeting, councilors heard only crickets.

“They sure come in for odd things and not for what we spend money on,” said City Councilor Chuck Ekstedt.

City Clerk and Treasurer Tracy Rebo said the city had some financial leeway this fiscal year. Coronavirus relief funds from the American Rescue Plan Act provided the municipality with a $123,491 windfall. A series of grants — including a possible $150,400 award from the state Land and Water Conservation Fund — could provide the city with at least $217,304.

Thanks to the recent influx of funds, Rebo said Troy was able to put money down for two vehicles, a sweeper and a fourth employee for the city’s electric department. She anticipated that the city might not be so fortunate in the future.

“Next year is going to be a little tighter,” she said.

The city will be operating with a general fund of just over $927,000, up from last year’s fund of roughly $549,000.

Some of the major expenditures in this portion of the budget include dollars for the city’s skate park and splash pad, which together will cost Troy an estimated nearly $222,000. Councilors have also put aside just under $68,000 for construction at Pedalers Park and the installation of coin-operated showers for recreationists. Councilors plan to use grants and donations to help cover these costs.

Troy’s water department expects to see a 5 percent drop in expenses to $345,369. The sewer department anticipates expenditures to decrease by 2 percent to $262,656. The electric department could see a 6 percent — or nearly $80,000 — increase in its budget to $1.4 million.

The city budget lists a real property tax revenue of $111,590, which represents a 26 percent increase over last year’s budget. In total the city expects to bring in $2.8 million in revenues, a just over $55,000 increase over last year.

The water and sewer departments could see a slight dip in revenues to just over $278,000 and a little over $287,000 respectively. Revenue for the electric department is budgeted to increase to $1.4 million.

*A previous version of this article mistakenly referred to this version of the budget as the preliminary budget.