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Health & Fitness

Columbia Heights 2012 Budget - The Employees Know

Columbia Heights passes 2012 Budget.

Columbia Heights city employees really know what is going on. They notice areas of waste.  They know areas that we need to expand our services. They know the areas that we have too many employees and those areas we could use more employees.  

What does this mean? This means Columbia Heights city employees (not just department heads) need to be part of the discussion when we are working on the 2013 budget. Next year, I would like to take a tip from Anoka County and get input from the employees. They know the areas that could be cut and still provide needed services. Anoka County did this and they were able to decrease their portion of taxes over 7 percent compared to the city's increase.

The Columbia Heights annual budget was passed at the December 12 meeting. Columbia Heights residents will see the Columbia Heights portion go up 3.98 percent. But because of the significant drop in home values most people will not notice the increase and will instead see an overall drop in their real estate taxes for 2012.  

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In going over the budget, I had made several suggestions for cutting back but none were taken. I did not go into the meetings expecting much of a change but hoping that some decrease could be agreed on. It did not happen.

I was disappointed in the discussions that we had this year with the 2012 budget. Most of the 'discussion' ended up being presentations. There was little feedback from the department leaders. I have been promised that this will change next year. But we also need to include the regular employees, those that work in the trenches, not just the department heads. They really do know what is going on.

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