ST. CLOUD -- St. Cloud Mayor Dave Kleis says he wants to capture the increase in property tax revenue to raise the city's budget by about one percent in 2019.  Kleis presented his preliminary budget to the city council on Monday night.

His budget of just over $75 million is slightly higher than this year's budget of $74.3 million.  Kleis says, once again next year if the value of your home does not increase then the city portion of your property taxes would also not increase.

The budget includes a 7.5% increase for public works including things like street improvements and a 5.2% increase for public safety for police and fire services.

There's a nine percent decrease in the budget for debt services.

The proposed budget includes paying the salaries of three additional police officers.  Those officers are already on the force, but grants have been used to pay their salaries up through this year.  Other additional staff includes one in assessing, one in engineering, and one in information technology.

Other new expenses in 2019 include buying a new camera system for all 32 marked vehicles in the police department and spending an additional $300,000 in seal coating projects.

As for where the money comes from that makes up the city budget, 36% comes from property taxes, 17% comes from Local Government Aid, and 11% from other taxes and fees.  Those are the three biggest pots of money.

The St. Cloud City Council has to approve the final 2019 city budget by December.

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