City sets final budget at $18.84 up 3.2%

FORT MADISON – The Fort Madison City Council ratified two union contracts during exempt sessions prior to the regular City Council meeting Tuesday night at Fort Madison City Hall.
According to City Manager Laura Liegois, the city and the Public Professional and Maintenance Employees Local 2003 (police union) and the Fire Fighters Association Local 607 (fire department union) reached an agreement on next year's contract.
Liegois said the city settled on a 9% across-the-board union pay salary increase and has spread a clothing allowance across the base salary rather than include it as a separate incentive.
The fire department union settled on a 5% across-the-board bump for union firefighters.
Both contracts are one-year agreements.
On February 25th, the council voted to approve a non-union salary bump of 5% for other city staff after original proposals included a 3% bump in salaries. The non-union increase from 3% to 5% will cost the city roughly an additional $52,000 in salary and benefits.
Property tax levy numbers have also been finalized by city officials and are being forwarded to the Lee County Auditor’s office. Those numbers will be published in a state-mandated letter to county residents outlining each different governmental taxing agency’s property tax levy for the upcoming fiscal year starting July 1, 2026.
The City of Fort Madison will be requesting a levy of $18.84, an increase of 59.5 cents from the current year. That number is made up of a $7.97 general fund levy, which pays for city operations outside of enterprise funds, and is down 24 cents from the current year; a $4.91 levy for debt service, which is an increase of 26 cents over preliminary budget numbers released last week and $1.51 more than  the current year’s levy; a tort liability fund levy of $0.38; and an employee benefits levy of $5.59, which is down a nickel from last week's budget workshop,  but up 34 cents from the current year. Each levy is based on a per $1,000 of assessed valuation.
Debt service for the city is set at $1.7 million for 2026-27 with $608,000 allocated for the new fire station and public works building. The rest of the debt service is for ongoing payments on a $6 million quality of life bond at $438,650; and another general obligation bond for street and bridge work at $652,000 in the next fiscal year.