ESCANABA — The Escanaba City Council approved two ordinances cementing the amount residents will pay in taxes and how that money will be used by the city.

The first ordinance up for discussion was the city’s annual appropriations ordinance, Ordinance No. 1205, which set the millage rate for the city’s upcoming fiscal year at 17 mills and distributed that funding to each of the city departments. The document serves as a formalized budget, and while it does not dive deep into each line item, it lays out the anticipated revenue and expenses for each city fund.

The second ordinance, Ordinance No. 1206, solidifies the tax rate by levying the 17 mills upon all ad valorem taxable property in the city. The millage rate will take effect with the July 2019 tax bill and will generate $5,458,765 for the payment of the city’s debts as well as appropriations laid out in Ordinance No. 1205.

According to the appropriations ordinance, the city anticipates the general fund will receive $5,430,300 in revenue from tax dollars. Additional money from licenses and permits, intergovernmental sources, fines and charges for service, transfers from other sources will bring the total fund revenues to $8,667,632. Of that, only $88,292 is a transfer from the fund balance remaining at the end of the 2018-2019 fiscal year, which ends June 30.

Because the general fund is responsible for the majority of city operations, it has the longest list of expenditures. Topping the list of non-transfer expenses are the Public Safety Department at $4,591,104; parks and recreation, with $607,655 budgeted for recreation and $255,484 for parks; solid waste collection at $426,913; billing at $354,701; and the city controller’s office at $325,238.

Three other city funds benefit from transfers from the general fund. For the 2019-2020 fiscal year, the library fund will receive $400,000, the Escanaba Building Authority fund will receive $149,000, the parking maintenance fund will receive $18,000. While the ordinance is set up to allow a transfer from the general fund to the city’s grant fund, no transfer is planned for the upcoming fiscal year.

Ultimately, the city anticipates general fund expenditures to reach $9,741,182. However, all of the city utilities make transfers back into the general for overhead utilities. In total, the utilities will return $1,073,550, for overhead, bring the general fund’s expenses to exactly its revenue at $8,667,632.

Also included in the ordinance are the city’s enterprise funds, however the anticipated budgets are included for information purposes only. The city would be unable to require a revenue amount by ordinance when that revenue is largely the result of how residents consume the services over the course of a year. However, the anticipated revenues and expenditures give insight into the effects a series of rate increases approved in the city’s budget will have on city operations.

Escanaba residents will face a roughly 45 percent increase in water rates beginning next month, with the total cost per 1,000 gallons rising to $4.15 and availability charges rising as well. Any discounts property owners were receiving based on high water consumption will also be eliminated in the coming fiscal year.

Those changes to the water rates bring the total anticipated revenues for the water department to $3,539,800. Expenses are expected to be $2,864,266 in the 2019-2020 fiscal year.

Wastewater rates are also expected to go up 20 percent, to $3.94 per thousand gallons, based off water metering, plus the monthly availability debt service charge assessed to properties, which will also increase over the 2018-2019 levels. The rate increase is the first in a series of planned 20 percent increases over the next three fiscal years.

The wastewater fund anticipates a revenue of $2,009,000 in the coming fiscal year. Expenses are projected to be $1,842,378.

Both the water and wastewater rate increases are part of long-term plans by the two departments. The water department increase is to pay for line replacements mandated by the Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy (EGLE), formerly the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality, which aim to reduce lead in the water supply. The wastewater increases are to pay for upgrades to the water plant and sewer system.

Residents are also looking at an increase to their electric rates. Rates will rise slightly from $.0957 per KWH for a residential customer to $.0963 per KWH. Commercial customers will also see an increase to $0.9010 per KWH from $0.8925 per KWH.

The difference in electric rates is not enough to keep expenses from being larger than revenue in the electric utility fund. Total revenues are expected to reach $13,931,985 and operating expenses are only expected to reach $13,336,015. However, depreciation costs, the return of overhead to the general fund, and an additional $765,790 transfer to the general fund bring expenses to $15,465,639.

Other funds included in the ordinance are the major and local street funds, library fund, Bezold Trust fund, gas retirement fund, sanitary landfill fund, downtown development authority fund, housing rehabilitation fund, Delta County Central Dispatch fund, land development fund, parking maintenance fund, three revolving loan funds, the Farmers Home Grant fund, drug law enforcement fund, and brownfield redevelopment fund.