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The City of Locust’s 2020-2021 budget will keep the property tax rate at 36 cents per $100 valuation. It is 23rd consecutive year the residents of Locust have not experienced a tax increase.

The budget was adopted during the June 11 city council meeting.

One major change due to COVID-19 is that sales tax for the first quarter of the upcoming fiscal year will get hit by as much as 30 percent, Correa said. Taking that into account, and after looking at the revenue from the last fiscal year that ended 2018-2019, the city budgeted a 15 percent decrease in sales tax and franchise tax for the year.

“For the whole year we felt that a 15 percent decrease was ample and that it was going to be in line with the recommendations from the League of Municipalities to make sure we have a realistic approach on our budgeted revenue projections,” Correa said.

The city’s total assessed value is $464 million, an increase of $62.5 million from the previous year.

The 2020-2021 budget totals nearly $4.4 million for the General Fund and Enterprise Water Fund, a slight increase from the previous fiscal year’s city-wide budget of $4.3 million.

The General Fund budget for this fiscal year is $3.1 million, which is roughly the same as the previous year’s budget. This includes $570,000 for general government, $1.2 million for public safety, $524,000 for public works and $343,000 for parks and recreation.

Major appropriations in the General Fund expenses include $427,000 for administration compensation; $1.05 million for police compensation; $40,000 for capital outlay; $142,000 for public works compensation; and $171,000 for parks and recreation compensation and $45,000 for youth and adult services.

The total wastewater expenses is $1.2 million, which includes $228,000 for wastewater compensation and $450,000 for wastewater treatment.

The General Fund revenue, which totals $3.1 million, includes $1.6 million from the property tax, $710,000 from sales tax, $210,000 from solid waste fee and a $190,000 transfer from General Fund Reserve.

The Wastewater revenue, which totals $1.2 million, includes $883,000 for user fees and $115,000 for availability fees.

The Powell Fund expenses for the 2020-2021 budget totals $112,700, a decrease from last fiscal year’s $105,100.