City Commission approves budget

The Marquette City Commission approved the city’s 2013–14 fiscal year budget by a  6–1 vote Tuesday night.

Something different about the city’s budget for the fiscal year is that the budget is for fifteen months instead of twelve.  The budget totals over $26 million.

There is also a budget surplus of around $150,000.

“A good part of the that (the surplus money) is due to the additional taxes from the change of Marquette General (Hospital) to a profit to a profit,” Mayor Pro Tem Robert Neimi said.  “They now pay property taxes, and that payment will actually result in the city receiving more revenues than we have for planned expenditures.”

The commission did not have to raise taxes for the budget, and Niemi says it is on par to what the budget was last year.

“The budget is pretty much the same,” Niemi said.  “We’ve been fortunate throughout the recession, the city’s had fairly easy budget processes.”

“We haven’t had the problems some of the other downstate cities had, where they’ve been losing tax revenue.  The City of Marquette has actually seen a slight increase throughout the recession so we’ve had easy budgets the last few years.”

Five million dollars have been set aside for road improvements.  The budget also includes a new position in the City’s Manager’s office, funds for studies done to traffic in Marquette and the ore dock, and increasing fees for youth sports.

The whole budget can be viewed at www.mqtcity.org.