Johnston City Council Approves the Fiscal Year 2023 Budget

By Press release submission

Mar 21, 2022

The Johnston City Council held a public hearing at its regular meeting on Monday, March 21, at 7 p.m. to approve and adopt the city's budget and Capital Improvement Projects budget for Fiscal Year 2023. The new budget will go into effect on July 1, 2022.

"The adopted budget reflects the priorities Johnston residents have told us are important to them – our tremendous police and fire services, great parks and trails, and well-designed and functioning infrastructure, including city streets," said Mayor Paula Dierenfeld. "Each year, the City Council works hard to keep property taxes as low as possible while continuing to provide the quality services our residents have grown to expect and deserve."

The $79 million budget and the use of Local Option Sales and Services Tax (LOSST) to lower the tax rate results in a tax rate of $10.68 per $1,000 of taxable assessed value. Without LOSST, the tax rate would have been $12.90. The city's portion of the property tax bill for a Johnston property owner is 27 percent. The remaining taxes go to Johnston Schools (44 percent), Polk County (18 percent), Broadlawns hospital (7 percent), DART (2 percent), DMACC (1 percent), and Polk County Assessor (1 percent).

With the adopted budget, the departments will be adding staff and resources to ensure residents continue to receive quality services. These include:

Police will partner with the fire department to hire a shared Public Safety Support Specialist position, which will focus on project, equipment, and facilities management.
Support annual maintenance costs for the K9 program. The initial costs will be fundraised through sponsorships, grants and stakeholder donations.
One full-time firefighter.
A Parks recreation position, which will be hired mid-year, January 2023.
An Economic Development Project Manager to assist with our community's growing economic development needs.
One Parks maintenance position to assist with the upkeep of growth in our community.
One part-time service/IT associate moving to full-time at the library.

Highlights of the Capital Improvement Projects include the following projects:

Ignit Park
Lew Clarkson Park
Dewey Park
Simpson Barn
Cross country/soft trail
Terra Park canoe/kayak docks

Street Improvements

ICAAP Merle Hay Road (I-35/80 to NW 70th Avenue) involves studying traffic signal timing and making adjustments to improve traffic flow
Implementation of the sidewalk repair, replacement and construction program
East of Merle Hay Road, north of NW 62nd Avenue improvements (design)
NW 107th (between NW 70th Avenue and NW 78th Avenue) asphalt overlay project (design)
NW 100th Street reconstruction from NW 54th Avenue to NW 62nd Avenue (design)

Sanitary sewer improvements