December 18th Council Meeting

The last Council meeting of the year has 18 agenda items but will center on the levy, budget, liquor store and an exciting new company we have been working with.

The property tax levy will be presented at 59.91%, the lowest in the region. This is made possible by using fiscal discipline in the budgeting process. It has been a long process and a few points still have to be agreed to at Tuesday's nights meeting, but it has set Isanti on the right course. The 2008 budget took a lot of work and many hard decisions.

With all this the 2009 budget we start working on in a few months will be 10 times harder as the housing debacle and all it entails will be hitting us full force next year. It was critically important to keep City spending low this year in anticipation of the 2009 budget work that is in store for us all.

The request has come up again to go out for bids on the architecture of the liquor store. I just do not see the point at this time. The reality of the numbers as I have laid out in the past just do not make this an option. I will not go over this all again here as I have give all my reasons previously. We simply need to make the repairs that are needed and move on.

I wanted to highlight another business we have been working on bringing to town. Hi-Lo Manufacturing is a sixty-year-old manufacturing firm with both a product and CNC contract machining business. They will be in front of the Council asking to assume the requirements of a previous business agreement. This means that a now empty building in our industrial will be bursting with activity. Hi-Lo will be looking to expand as they have also asked for an option of a further parcel of land. This will be their head quarters facility. There are roughly 40 current employees with good wages in this machining company. I would anticipate another 10 good paying jobs in the next two years.

I will keep you posted as always.