The Crookston City Council held a Budget Workshop Discussion session on Monday evening, following the City Council meeting.
The City Administrator started the discussion by pointing out that Crookston’s tax capacity is essentially even with last year’s at $4.8 million. A list of Capital Requests from each Department was provided, and an estimated 5% Wage Increase for City Employees has budget discussions on some unstable ground. “I just wanted the council to see our tax capacity did not significantly change from last year,” says Shoobridge. “We were hoping for a better increase; however, we didn’t get that. It did stay at approximately the same, within $20,000.”
Shoobridge says the council needs to start looking at all the possibilities as the road ahead is full of tough decisions. “I just wanted the city council and the residents to be aware,” says Shoobridge. “Staff and I will be working very hard to sharpen those pencils and create the best budget we can, but it will be another difficult budget year as we move forward.”
Some of those tough decisions discussed were making program cuts, not simply line items. “Line items are always an issue,” says Shoobridge. “What I wanted to convey is that we really need to look at all of the services we provide, all of the things that we do for our residents, and maximize everything that we do and maintain all that we can, but at the same time, sometimes very difficult decisions have to be made.”
Although line items being cut may not help, some of the things mentioned during discussion that would help are the Ag Innovations refund of $1.1 million that the city has received. Shoobridge says the refund will be used to build up the city’s reserve fund. Programs and Department structures will be addressed in the coming months as ways of balancing the budget. An example given by Shoobridge was bringing the EDA within the City, instead of spending money on consultants for grants and grant writing.
Shoobridge also spoke of revenue enhancement opportunities. “We are looking at every opportunity we can to enhance revenues,” says Shoobridge. “An example we do have is an agreement pending with another city to provide Building Official Services, which will help us offset some of our costs.” Another possible opportunity comes from the Park & Rec Department. “Scott, our new Parks Director, we have been talking about the organization of the Parks Department,” says Shoobridge. “Maintaining our services and amenities while finding the most efficient way to provide them. We are looking at all options at this point.”
Although he says there is nothing to speak of on the table right now, going forward, it will be very important to get as close as possible to balance. “We are looking at the operational efficiencies. How can we streamline many of the items and see how close we can get before looking at any programmatic cuts.” The number Shoobridge mentioned that would be needed to get the city balanced is about $1.2 million.
Shoobridge asked the council to consider amenities and services with three things in mind: which programs are mission critical, which are high in importance, and which are “nice to have.” These will help the council make some of the tough decisions that need to be made to get the city out of the red heading into 2026.
