News

Mayor Recommends St. Cloud Infrastructure Bond

Photo: Michael DeWeese-Frank, Photos.com

Aug 16, 2012 at 9:05 am

ST. CLOUD, MN (KNSI) - The St. Cloud City Council will decide next week whether to place a four year, 18-million dollar bond issue on the November ballot.

If it makes it to the ballot and is approved, the money would be used for street and sewer projects around town. The high dollar amount has sparked the recommendation to put the question to a vote.

"We could obviously with road construction in a bond, we could just do it, but when it comes to a project of that size, 18 million dollars to catch us up on the backlog of infrastructure, infrastructure that is aging, I believe that is something we should take to the voters,” Mayor Dave Kleis said.

Kleis sees this bonding measure as a step towards meeting the expressed concerns of a majority of the residents of the city.

“At the beginning of the year we surveyed the residents as to what their top issue was,’ Kleis said. “They stated to us that was roads, transportation, in particular the shape of our roads."

If the bond issue is passed by voters, the city's share of property taxes would go up a little over four-percent, an increase spread over the next few years.

"Construction would start next year, you wouldn’t actually see any change in your property tax next year, it wouldn't take effect until 2014 and then it would be gradually by 2015,” Kleis said. “An average sized house in St. Cloud would probably see an increase of about 19 dollars a year."

Kleis says with an aging infrastructure, the work will need to be done eventually--one way or another.

"A lot of sewers and roads were put in at the same time in the 50s so you just don't have the capacity to build all that out every year, and we have had some tough economic times so we have had to cut back on that annual appropriation, we'll be back on track with the annual appropriation in a few years by 2014," Kleis said.

The city council will meet Monday night to decide whether to put the issue before voters in November.