Current budget shows possibility for six percent levy hike in 2026
Property owners in the city of Ely will likely pay more next year in order to balance the city’s budget.
After months of deliberation, city officials are closer to advancing a 2026 budget, and the council must pass a preliminary property tax levy before the end of the month.
Barring any changes, the levy will increase by $140,300, or 6.07 percent.
That would follow a seven percent increase that was assessed this year.
But for now, projections for 2026 are only preliminary and await further discussion, first by the city’s budget committee and then the council, which figures to pass a preliminary levy at its Sept. 16 meeting.
The preliminary levy is the maximum that may be collected, and council members could choose to reduce that number before final certification at the end of the year.
“We can just go down from there,” said mayor Heidi Omerza.
But with rising costs and anticipated local government aid, the city’s prime source of revenue expected to stay largely the same, city officials are wrestling with both the budget and levy.
“This is a work in progress,” said Omerza.
The city anticipates just under $4.5 million in general fund spending, a net change of $119,000 from 2025.
That includes a $114,500 increase in the police budget and $17,800 in planning and zoning, both because of increased staff and benefit costs, with savings in other areas resulting in the current number.
In addition to the general fund, the city has separate budgets for the library ($461,600, up $23,500), economic development authority ($385,900, down $2,700), airport ($303,600, down $300), debt service ($290,200, down $3,000), capital projects ($954,000, down $2.7 million), and equipment replacement ($1,034,100, up $549,000).
The capital projects figure has little bearing on the tax levy, given the nature of grant funding and other sources of funding for the bulk of those initiatives each year.
Harold Langowski, the city’s clerk-treasurer, spoke briefly about the process that resulted in the current figures.
“This has been discussed at the budget committee for the last couple months or so,” he said. “We’ve incorporated everybody’s budget, the department heads, the project heads, equipment replacement.”
Langowski also noted the city’s estimated levy increase in comparison to St. Louis County (see related story), which announced a proposed levy hike of just over 12 percent on Tuesday.
The largest single line items in the city’s general fund budget for 2026 are public works ($1,367,300) and police ($1,251,700), with the clerk-treasurer’s department ($446,800) next.
The city proposed to spread a $2,453,000 levy, with $808,200 dedicated to the general fund, $680,000 for capital projects followed by the library ($436,600), debt service ($304,200), equipment replacement ($200,000) and the cemetery ($24,000).
In 2024, council members settled on a 2.99 percent increase in the city levy. That was followed by the seven percent increase this year.
