Holding steady
City of Medford taxpayers should see little change in the amount they will be paying in the city portion of their property tax bills.
At Monday’s city council budget review meeting, city coordinator Joe Harris presented a proposed budget with a $1,067,837 local property tax levy, which is up $24,000 from the prior year, working out to about a 2.3% levy increase.
The budget was presented as balanced with $4,385,337.96 in projected revenue for 2026 calendar year which was matched by $4,385,337.96 in projected expenses.
The city has continued to benefit from increased growth, with net new construction in the city at $9,097,100 for 2025, this is on top of $8,575,000 in new construction in 2024.
“The city has been a big growth engine for the entire Taylor County,” said council member Mike Bub. Bub, along with council member Tim Hansen also represent city residents on the county board.
Bub praised a chart included in the budget in the board packets, noting that it helps show the city’s growth and historical allowable tax levy limits.
“It is all Kathy,” Harris, responded passing the praise onto treasurer Kathy Tom for doing the work in getting the charts together.
While property assessments in the city went up due to revaluation, holding the levy to a minimal increase may cause residents to see a drop in their tax rates, although they will be paying similar amounts as in the past. The final tax bills include the levy amounts from the city, county, school district, technical college district and state. The final rate will not be known until late fall prior to when tax bills are sent out.
While the local property tax levy is a major source of revenue for the city, the city also receives revenue from the state through shared revenue and aid for computer and personal property taxes. Harris explained that with the elimination of personal property tax at the state level, the state provides a payment to the city that will continue at the same level without increasing.
Council members questioned the budgeted amount of revenue from law enforcement from tickets and restitution amounts. “There is clearly a trend,” Bub said, noting the amount collected in recent years has been in excess of what has been budgeted and questioned if the amount of projected revenue should be increased.
“We are trying to not count our chickens until they are in the henhouse,” Harris responded, noting that if people obeyed the laws the amount in fines and forfeitures would be far less. He explained they did not want to budget on the assumption that people would be violating city codes.
On the expense side of the budget, there were few significant changes. One of the areas that the city has seen success is in insurance. The city budgets $5,000 a year to pay for employees visiting Taylored Family Care as a direct service provider rather than having that amount go through the city’s insurance claims. So far in 2025, the city has spent $1,900 of city funds on the program with the remainder of it coming through the health insurance cooperative the city is part of. City clerk Ashley Lemke praised the program noting that it covered 45 office visits for city employees since the beginning of the year and that this has reduced the overall number of claims to the city’s insurance.
In other expense areas, Harris noted that the budgeted amount for salt and sand was lower than the previous year. He noted that even with last winter’s exceptionally mild conditions, the city still used between $70,000 and $80,000 due to the price of salt continuing to increase.
In the review of the culture and recreation budget, council member Randy Haynes said he was approached by people with Medford City Baseball about the need to replace the scoreboard at the main field in the park. The current scoreboard dates from the 1980s, with council member Clem Johnson guessing it was put in place in 1983 or 1984.
The request from Medford City Baseball was to have the city pay to replace the scoreboard. “The city owns the field,” Haynes said.
Mayor Mike Wellner noted the baseball organization has exclusive use of the field through a lease agreement from April to August. He said he would like to see the baseball organization at least attempt to do some fundraising, noting that scoreboards are generally easier to get sponsor for.
Sierra Pacific paid for the installation of a new scoreboard at the Little League baseball diamond. Wellner said often groups come with ideas and want the city to do the whole thing “You have to put some effort into it too,” Wellner said, noting the city would work with the group to help make it happen if they got sponsorships.
“We do own it, and we should maintain it,” Hansen said.
“We own a lot of stuff,” Harris replied. Hansen responded that the city doesn’t fundraise to fix roads or put in water and sewer mains.
Harris noted that Medford City Baseball has not done any fundraisers for over three years. He said the city is willing to help with the project but said the organization that is the group that uses it should also be involved.
Wellner suggested inviting the Medford City Baseball to come and make a presentation to the city council about what they would like done. Lemke said she had also been contacted on last Friday about getting the scoreboard added to the budget, and described it as being at the last minute with the budget going to Monday night’s council meeting.
“Forewarning would have been nice,” Wellner said, suggesting the group come and present what they want to see done with the scoreboard.
In other park improvements, Harris noted the increase for Riverwalk and explained that the city was approached by a local craftsman to create additional decorative light poles along the River Walk similar to the one in the shape of a person fishing that was installed last year. The city crew did the work on the fisherman light pole in otherwise downtime, but it spread it over two years to get accomplished. The craftsman approached the city about doing some additional poles with a variety of designs with the city providing the materials and him doing the work. “He has ideas for five to 10 of them,” Harris said. Poles along the Riverwalk are in need of replacement and it was noted that there has been nothing but positive response from the fisherman light pole.
Hansen asked about cleanup of the Millpond with weed removal. He questioned if the city could rent one like Rib Lake Fish and Game has to remove weeds from the pond and make it look better. Harris compared it to leaf pick-up equipment noting that when you want to use it is when everyone needs to use it.
“It doesn’t hurt to ask,” Hansen said. Within city hall, Harris said some changes are in the works to improve the ability to have meeting viewable online. At Monday’s meeting, council member Ken Coyer attended via Zoom, but had to go through Harris’s laptop and with a camera on a tripod. Harris said he hoped to improve it to make it easier for people to appear remotely in both the council room and the conference room.
The final city budget will come back for formal approval later this fall.
Other portions of the budget include construction projects and the debt service. Once a significant portion of the overall budget, the amount of the local tax levy going to debt service has drastically dropped. It was budgeted for $40,000 this year and for next year is budgeted at just $4,000 as the result of the city being aggressive in retiring outstanding general obligation debt. While the city still had borrowing, this is mainly in the utilities where they revenue bonds are repaid through customer user fees.
The city is budgeting for $815,000 in construction projects in the coming year, this is comparable to the amount budgeted in prior years. Major work will include $250,000 budgeted for the development of pickleball courts in the city park, $170,000 in road overlays, $40,000 to improve the Main Street Alley, $25,000 for work on the swimming pool building and $185,000 in department of public works equipment nonlapsing funds.
