Mayor Mahoney Releases Preliminary 2020 Budget, Includes Property Tax Increase

The budget will be reviewed by city commissioners

FARGO, N.D. — Mayor Tim Mahoney released his preliminary budget for 2020, including proposed tax increases.

Since he came to Fargo nearly four decades ago, every year has seen more growth.

“It’s doubled size since I’ve been in the community, we continue to grow about 3,000 a year basically and it’s fantastic. It’s also fun as a citizen, ‘oh a new restaurant opened, oh something else happened.’ It’s always moving, there’s a buzz in the city, if we can keep it a healthy buzz, I think people will be happy and that’s what we’re trying to do,” he said.

The preliminary 2020 budget asks for money to keep up with the changes in North Dakota’s largest city. There’s more demand for city services and first responders.

Mahoney says the goal is to meet citizens’ needs while keeping tax rates reasonable.

“Most people don’t want you to raise taxes, I listen to that. Very cognitive of that, very careful about any requests for taxes, and the other thing is how can we increase services, so we hear different requests,” he said.

A major increase will be in property taxes. Taxes have been going down over the past few years, but the budget asks for an increase of about $21 on a $250,000 home.

The proposed general fund revenue projection is over $103 million, up from $98 million in 2019.

Mahoney says as the population keeps changing, people in the community will adjust to the growth and collectively contribute to make Fargo far more.

“The beauty right now is everyone has an opportunity to shape the city going forward. What we’re going to design and build and what it’s going to be, increase density, start to build taller, vertical buildings, it’s an opportunity for people to say what they want,” he said.

City commissioners will spend the next few days reviewing the budget. There will be a public meeting August 12 to discuss the plan.

To see the whole budget, click here.