The New Ulm City Council appears to have some work cut out for it before it finalizes the new city budget.

The council got a preliminary report Tuesday that indicates a 12.65% tax levy increase would be needed to fund the budget proposals. That would be a hike of $1,045,547 over last year’s levy of of $8,266,209. The city’s budget in 2021 totaled just over $21.7 million.

How a 12.65% levy hike would translate into an individual’s property tax bill is hard to say, but to most taxpayers, bigger is definitely not better.

City Manager Chris Dalton has presented a long list of budget items and how they might impact the budget. One notable recommendation was to eliminate the Economic Director/Assistant City Manager position held by Audra Shaneman and replace it with an extra information technology position.

Two years ago the city pulled its $50,000 subsidy to the New Ulm Economic Development Corporation that helped fund their ED director in favor of having an ED director on staff. Would the city be reinstating that subsidy, or is economic development just to be abandoned? Certainly cybersecurity has become a very pressing issue in the past year, but economic development has never stopped being an issue.

Still, facing a 12.65% levy increase, the city council should be looking at everything. The council debated the allocations for non-profit groups such as the Concord Singers, the New Ulm Municipal Band, the Wanda Gag House Association and the Lind House. Cutting all of those would result in minimal savings for the city but have a dramatic impact on quality of life and tourism in New Ulm.

Spending some of the city’s reserve funds should also be on the table. The funds total 60 percent of the annual budget, which is a healthy figure. The city could afford to use some of that to buy down the levy a bit.

Lots of decisions will need to be made before the council sets the budget in September. Anything the council can do to being that tax levy increase down will be appreciated by the taxpayers.