SHELBY – Shelby residents will be asked to renew property tax levies in November to support the city’s health department and also its parks department.
City Council on Monday voted to place the pair of five-year renewals on the Nov. 3 ballot. As renewals, taxes will not rise if the issues are approved.
The health department levy renewal request is 0.9 mills for operations, costing the owner of a $100,000 home about $90 annually.
The parks department request is to renew a 0.5 mill levy for operating funds. That same owner of a $100,000 home pays about $50 per year for the levy.
Collection on both levies would begin in 2027.
Council also approved its anticipated revenue budget for 2027.
The anticipated budget shows a worst-case scenario of $6.9 million for the general fund, which assumes every dollar earned in 2026 is spent and every retirement-eligible person retires.
A revenue budget is an approximation of the money a city has coming in and out. It accounts for taxes, payroll, special projects and more, culminating in a general fund the city has to use for the year. It does not account for money held over from 2026.
“We don’t want to get in a situation where we built this fancy statue to the finance director, and then we realize, three months later, we don’t have enough to make payroll,” said Shelby Finance Director Brian Crum.
“There’s a multi-step process before we decide what we’re going to spend during the year,” Crum said. “(The revenue budget) is the first step … We calculate what we think we’re going to bring in for the year in revenues, and we have to submit those to the county, and they will approve them, saying, ‘Okay, that all makes sense.’ Then they send it back to us, and we say, ‘All right, we’re all in agreement.'”
The projected total revenue and balance for 2027 are almost $2 million below the 2026 total of $8.5 million. This is routine and intentional, Crum said.
“The general fund … realistically it will be much higher than that,” Crum said. “That’s if we were to spend every dime that we appropriated, and that’s incredibly, highly unlikely. It’ll probably really start closer to $2 million in our general fund at the beginning of the year.”
Crum’s assumption would put Shelby right around where it is in 2026, with potentially even more in its pockets.
“Thankfully, the administration – clear down to all of the staff and, of course, Council – everybody’s really careful with what they spend,” Crum said.
“We don’t have that issue of people. ‘Well, I’m going to spend it now because I won’t get it next year.’ … they watch their pennies, and it makes my job a lot easier.”
