A single percentage point might not seem like a lot, but when it comes to taxes and the City of Tracy’s budget, 1% was a point of debate at the regular council meeting Monday night.
The council set the preliminary levy for Tracy at 5% in September on a 6-1 vote. Councilman Seth Schmidt was the lone no vote and stated he’d feel more comfortable at 3%. The final levy for 2026 was set at 5% Monday, but not until after a vote for a 4% increase failed.
The budget with a 5% levy increase was presented to the council by Tyler Twistol, City finance director. During discussion, Schmidt brought up a budget they had looked at that would have kept the levy at only 4%.
However, Twistol explained that the budget with a 4% levy would result in a significant cut to the City’s clean-up budget. The 5% budget only had an approximate $4,000 cushion.
Schmidt made a motion to set the levy at 4%, and it was seconded by Jan Arvizu. However, after more discussion, the motion failed on a 3-4 vote with Dave Tiegs, George Landuyt, Brian Hinrichs and Jeri Schons voting against.
A second motion to set the levy at 5% was made by Tiegs and seconded by Hinrichs. That motion passed 6-1 with Schmidt casting the dissenting vote.
“I’ll be honest, the last thing I want to do is take money out for the dilapidated buildings and stuff like that,” Schons said. “It will be the same council next year. There isn’t an election before the next year’s budget. But now we have the ability to replace some pretty old equipment. I think we need to keep equipment and stuff at the forefront as we look at the levy. We’ve had to be at 7% in the past and I’d hate to cut down to a 4% and then have to jump up again.”
The equipment Schons was referring to was a $100,000 excess in this year’s budget that was not spent because two engineering projects not done and $16,000 left in the clean-up Tracy account. This money will be used to replace a 1987 dump truck that was budgeted to be replaced in 2026. The money budgeted for a dump truck in 2026 will be used to replace the 1989 dump truck that the transmission went out in. This would have been replaced in 2028, therefore that budget item will be eliminated at that time.
The final 2026 levy also includes a 3% increase in water fees, sewer fees and storm sewer fees. The Capital Improvement Projects will receive $194,000 from the tax levy. The Debt Services Fund will receive $617,000, and the General Fund will receive $857,916 for a total levy of $1,668,916.
The council also approved the 2026 budget Monday night. The budget includes expenditures across all funds at $9,569,994. Total new revenues are estimated to be $8,095,280 while other sources and uses are estimated to be $1,869,950.
In addition, the council approved the adoption of the 2026 annual fee schedule.
