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The 2025 budget-setting for the  City of Wyoming was pretty uneventful last week, with no questions arising during the public taxation hearing held by city council.  One business owner questioned her property tax situation during an open forum,  but she learned her concerns would be better addressed by  the county assessor, who handles market valuation tasks.

In Chisago County residential property valuations decreased somewhat for 2025, based on the recently slack market, meaning tax capacity for Wyoming overall went down $61,000.  The property tax formula calls for dividing the tax capacity by the levy to get the tax rate— meaning the rate for Wyoming taxpayers is increasing for 2025 to 40.4 percent.  It has been as low as 38 percent in the last five years.

Wyoming made its last payment on a 2009 General Obligation bond that required about $63,000 in debt service annually, and budgeted that elsewhere. Expenses went up but not by as much as was previously declared in preliminary numbers in September. Plus, the city financed its 2024 street improvement projects, which did not end up costing as much as was projected, and this also allowed for preliminary numbers to shrink a bit. 

In all—the general levy is increasing by 5.87 percent and will be $5.8 million.

Wages and insurance are behind much of the hike but there are expenses in vehicles, maintenance, capital equipment that are affected by inflation as well.

The state provides Local Government Aid (LGA) which varies from year to year. For 2025, the city is only expecting about $500 in additional funding, staff told the council.  And, the one-time 2024 distribution by the state of public safety funds(from the surplus)  is not arriving in 2025, which also makes an impact.

The council voted to dedicate $200,878 in the fast-expiring ARPA federal funding to acquiring portable radios for city emergency personnel.  The American Recovery monies need to be committed by the end of this year.

There was also a motion approved to accept the donations collected in the Night to Unite and Stuff the Squad events. Citizens gave 594 pounds of food items, a $100 grocery store gift card and $1,100 in cash,  which is going to support Family Pathways.

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