It's one of the largest jobs for the Oskaloosa City Council every year - how to spend your taxpayer dollars. During Tuesday's city council meeting, city manager Michael Schrock presented the budget for fiscal year 2014 which starts in July.

Schrock says when it comes to the services provided, everything is being kept at the status quo with the exception of road improvement projects.

"We're really focusing on infrastructure. We're going to have big paving projects for C Ave E, we're going to have one for 3rd Ave E, trying to tie into other projects that we're completing this fiscal year. North 3rd is a high priority because of the school traffic and the traffic that the Y generates, we're going to try and get that done as well," says City Manager Michael Schrock.

The funding for those projects comes from a local option sales tax as well as a franchise fee that was increased last year. That increase in that fee was earmarked to pay strictly for road improvements.

"That's a strong commitment they've made year in and year out and they're using local option sales tax and franchise fees to pay for those improvements," says Schrock.

The entire recommended city budget amounts to 20 point five million dollars. Shrock says the city tax rate will remain the same, but he says you can expect to see your tax bill go up because of a thing called the "rollback" from the state. The rollback is a complicated tax formula that dictates how much money you will pay according to the assessed valuation of your property. Shrock says the rollback is going up this year, meaning you will pay more. The next step in the city's budget process is to conduct a public hearing, that will occur on March 3rd.

Also during the city council meeting, plans were introduced to construct a new parking lot between JCPenny and Mathew Carpet. That project was initially intended to get started later in the summer but that's changed.

"Once RABGRAI announced they were coming into town we realized it wouldn't be a good idea to have that facility that parking lot under construction right in the middle of RAGBRAI. So we've gone back to the council and said okay we'd like to shift the money back in the FY13 and take care of that project as soon as we can start construction," says Schrock.

That project is expected to get underway in April and last for about two months, depending on the weather.

City Manager Michael Schrock's Presentation on the City Budget to the City Council on February 19, 2013:

Click Here to View a PDF of Michael Schrock's Budget Presentation