Following the last of three public hearings, the Duluth City Council voted to approve a 2018 property tax millage rate of 6.551 mills. The city’s tentative Fiscal Year 2019 budget requires a millage rate higher than the calculated rollback rate.
Duluth’s Citizen’s Budget Committee also agreed that no current services should be reduced. The committee made several specific suggestions for the amount of additional reserves needed to implement budget items including HVAC replacement for the Festival Center, Red Clay Theatre Building and City Hall maintenance, exterior cleaning for City Hall, HVAC rebalancing for the public safety complex, seed funds for possible redevelopment, future technology improvements and emergency repairs.
The approved millage rate for a resident with a home value of approximately $200,000 will result in an increase without a homestead exemption of approximately $21.04 and with homestead $20.51.