Clay County Commission

Dan Haglund

The Clay County administrator delivered the 2025 preliminary net levy increase proposal of 4.62 percent before the Board of Commissioners on Tuesday in Moorhead.
Administrator Stephen Larson said the proposal would do two things.
First, Resolution 2024-2027 would allow county auditor Lori Johnson the ability to certify the preliminary levy by state statute requirement by the Sept. 30 deadline.
Second, it would establish the maximum amount that county citizens could be assessed for the 2025 levy.
“It’s important for our citizens to know and understand that once the preliminary levy is set, the levy can only be adjusted lower and cannot be increased,” Larson said.
Administrators, auditor department heads and county commissioners will have the opportunity to review the proposed levy, and make recommendations or changes by the final budget by Dec. 17.
Citizens will be allowed to provide feedback, Larson said, on the Truth in Taxation meeting at 6 p.m. Nov. 26.
Larson said the budget process began during the final week of May with department heads receiving the budget packets. They had until early July to hand them back in to Johnson’s office. Johnson then began assembling the total budget proposal for all departments for assessment by the board of commissioners.
Larson said the budget also include a 3-percent cost-of-living adjustment (COLA), a 3-percent market study grid adjustment, the STEPs for employee longevity, a 9-percent increase for insurance, $250,000 for future insurance needs, as this will be the final year for a cap on insurance.
The market study adjustment was presented this summer, the first in five years, and aligned county employee salaries with nearly two dozen other counties of comparable size and economic needs.
There are also new requests of $227,316, of which $100,000 has been asked by law enforcement for internal service.
External agencies also receive funds through the county levy, Larson said.
The West Fargo Chamber and Greater Fargo-Moorhead Economic Development Corp. (EDC) request is $185,000, down from the first request of $250,000.
“In order to get to the net levy increase, with the addition of the county program aid this year,” Larson said. “The board has made the decision to utilize $1.835 million of reserves to lower that levy.”
Commissioner Jenny Mongeau, Dist. 3, said a tremendous amount of thoughtfulness went in to the final product.
“This (budget) document is the result of a lot of work,” Mongeau said. “There are no surprises here today because we’ve had so many discussions on what fits the best need, how can we utilize the dollars in the most responsible way possible.”
Mongeau also added that as a taxpayer, “seeing those increases every year is beginning to get painful.”
But with state mandates, she said, counties are really at a difficult point to provide all the services needed.