St. Cloud Mayor Presents 2024 Proposed Budget

ST. CLOUD (WJON News) -- St. Cloud Mayor Dave Kleis gave council members the first look at his proposed budget for 2024.

Kleis said a survey of residents found that for the first time road conditions surpassed public safety as the number one issue of concern for residents.

The mayor is proposing a budget that approaches $88-million which is an increase of more than 6% from this year.

But, Kleis says the increase will be captured through the growth in the tax base, allowing for a flat tax rate...

In tough years when the growth is non-existent, you make cuts. When the growth is significant, if you keep to the same philosophy, you capture that. We did last year, and rightfully so. There was pretty significant growth. (You'll see in a chart) that growth has slowed significantly. But, we did what we did to be able to cover the cost of inflation. We have inflation like everyone else has inflation.

Kleis says a community survey revealed road conditions were the most important thing to residents, followed by public safety and traffic congestion.

A significant portion of the increased spending is for parks and recreation, something Kleis says was approved by the voters in the last referendum.

The city council is expected to take up the budget at their September 9th meeting.