Mayor Kleis’ 2016 Budget Includes Money for 3 More Police Officers

ST. CLOUD - St. Cloud Mayor Dave Kleis wants to put more police officers on the streets next year. Kleis announced his proposal for the city's 2016 budget tonight (Monday) during the city council meeting.

The budget includes an 8.6 percent increase in the budget for the police department. Kleis says, "We're adding three police officers in this budget, and in additional to that, there's some capital, there's some squad cars."

Kleis says he's also proposing adding one additional employee in the IT department. And, the budget also includes money for the creation of a regional crime lab, which would be a collaborative effort with Anoka County.

Kleis says, even with the additional staff members, many homeowners will see the city portion of their property taxes go down.

If you're valuation didn't change your tax would go down, because the rate has gone down. If you look at the rate from 2015 to 2016, it will go down.

The St. Cloud city council needs to set the preliminary budget in September, and the final levy for 2016 will be set in December.

In the 2015 budget approved by the St. Cloud city council in December of last year, 10 new city employees were approved, including: two new police officers, three police support staff, two fire fighters, two equipment operators at the airport, and one in the health and inspections department.