The Jefferson City Council is expected to adopt the 2015 fiscal year budget at Tuesday, March 11th’s meeting.

However, there are a few concerns the City has going forward with a few state changes to its taxation policies.

City Clerk Dianne Kennedy says the newly passed legislation allowing business tax credits to commercial, industrial and railroad properties will mean loss of tax funds to the City that will be immediately felt this next fiscal year when taxation goes down from 100% to 95%.  She adds that this will drop to 90% for the 2016 fiscal year.

Kennedy notes that the state legislature has said they will backfill any lost tax funding due to the drop in businesses being taxed, but it’s uncertain at how much and for how long.

Kennedy points out other factors that will be effecting the budget are a reduction in the telecommunication properties and by fiscal year 2017, the state will rollback apartments, duplexes, condominiums and senior living communities in an eight-year phase in program.

Due to these changes, the Council made some preparation cuts to the 2015 budget at their budget workshop last month to reduce the number of part-time workers and will need to continue to find ways to save money before the 2017 fiscal year budget when Kennedy believes they will be hit the hardest.