Marion most likely will exceed its revenue-neutral rate when city council members approve a budget later this year.

“It’s 99% certain we’ll exceed it,” city administrator Brogan Jones said in an interview Friday.

The city’s revenue-neutral rate, collecting the same total in property taxes as this year, would be 65.873 mills. The estimated tax levy is 72.305 mills, with collections increasing because of a $1,058,136 increase valuation.

At a budget workshop July 5, consultant Scot Loyd urged the city to set money back for future capital improvement needs, pointing out that the city has been “just covering operating expenditures.”

The workshop was a first step, Jones said. The city will send line-item budget sheets to Loyd after department heads identify what they want.

Loyd learned during the meeting that the city has been putting money from a three-quarter percent sales tax approved by voters in 2001 for an industrial park and economic development into its general fund. He repeatedly used the word “interesting.”

Jones said most municipalities put such money in a separate fund.

“I’ve always wondered why it’s not split out,” he said.

The city paid off bonds for the industrial park in 2021.

State law says revenue received from a local sales tax that exceeds the amount of required to pay the costs of a special project should be credited to general fund.