VALLEY CITY, N.D. (NewsDakota.com) – Valley City property owners will notice a small decrease in their property tax bills in 2019.

City Administrator David Schelkoph said the city will not have a mill levy increase thanks in part to a transfer of $1 million dollars from the Public Works Department.

Here is a brief summary of a few key areas of the 2019 budget:

City employees will receive a 2.3 percent cost of living increase and a 1.6 percent step increase, that’s a $58,000 increase to the new city budget for that appropriation.

Schelkoph said $30,000 will go toward the future building addition for the Valley City Fire Department.

He said a full-time community service officer will be hired to enforce parking and animal ordinances for the city police department.

And $127,000 will be used to update the city customer information system to help the city communicate more efficiently with city residents via of email and social media in the future.

Schelkoph talked about the 2019 city budget with reporter Steve Urness.

Here’s an interesting fact: Schelkoph said 31 percent of your property taxes go to the Valley City Public School District, another 31 percent go to Barnes County, 26 percent to the city of Valley City and 12 percent go to the Valley City Park District.