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Houghton budget plan includes buying and selling

Garrett Neese/Daily Mining Gazette Councilors (from left) Rachel Lankton and Mike Needham listen to discussions of the Houghton City budget.

HOUGHTON — In its budget plan for equipment for the next fiscal year, the city plans to do some selling and buying.

City Manager Eric Waara said at Wednesday’s budget meeting that the city is expected to receive $10,000 from Laurium for the sale of its old Zamboni once the new one is delivered.

The city plans $246,000 in purchases for a Zamboni, sweeper, sander box and bucket truck.

“We’ve got two used bucket trucks right now that are both pretty humble,” Waara said.

He said he would come to the council soon to for authorization to dispose of one.

The city will transfer $25,000 to local street for paving and $30,000 to parking for deck work.

Unlike previous budgets, employee benefits during the next year will create a deficit — about $140,000. The deficit will be paid with the fund’s reserve balance.

Employer contributions are set at 77 percent. Sick and vacation days are based on past averages, plus an assumption of 1.5 retirements.

The city budgeted for an insurance rate increase of 7.5 percent over the current $44,000-per-month spending, Waara reported. The rate is above the insurer’s estimate of 5 percent.

“We don’t have a quote from our insurer yet, so I used 7.5 percent to be conservative,” he said.

About $31,000 of safety items were moved into employee benefit, such as training time.

The Christmas party and employee picnic were also moved into Employee Benefit Fund.

The budget could be revisited at another a budget work session next month, depending on the outcome of union collective bargaining agreement negotiations.

The council will hold a public hearing on the budget at its June 13 meeting.

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