North Platte City Council approves 2023-2024 budget, increases amount given to Chamber

NORTH PLATTE, Neb. (KNOP) - The North Platte City Council held a special work session Thursday to further discuss the 2023-2024 budget. City of North Platte Director of Finance Dawn Miller previously presented the budget to the council on August 17.

During this week’s budget work session, ward two councilman Ty Lucas made a motion to amend the budget to increase the amount given from the City to the North Platte Area Chamber and Development Corporation. “I’ve thought a lot about this, this request is not being pressed by Gary or the Chamber, this request is being pressed by me,” said Councilman Lucas. “The last time this amount was altered was in the fiscal year ending in 2017, the chamber is providing a significant service to the City of North Platte.”

The council voted 4-3 in favor of Councilman Lucas’ amendment to increase the amount given from the chamber to the City by $25,000. Gary Person, President and CEO of the North Platte Area Chamber and Development Corporation told KNOP he was very pleased with the amendment. “This helps us get the job done, you see evidence in the community with all of the growth,” said Person. “We have a lot of additional demands and we have a very brutal budget to start with and we have very limited staff so we do the best we can and work hard at it with what we have.”

Shortly after the amendment, ward three councilman Brad Garrick made a motion to wave the three readings required for the 2023-2024 budget.The council voted 7-0 in favor of adopting the 2023-2024 budget. “Great job in lowering taxes, the City of North Platte appreciates it,” said councilman Garrick. North Platte City Administrator Lane Groseth responded, “Thank you, councilman Garrick, all the City staff worked hard to keep our budget flat so kudos to them.”

North Platte Mayor Brandon Kelliher had the following to say in relation to the 2023-2024 budget, “We were able to drop the city levy about four cents, which is a pretty significant drop,” Kelliher said. “In previous years we’ve been able to drop a cent on average. We’ve been able to sharpen the pencil on the city budget which had probably the biggest effect. The city administrator and the city directors have done a fantastic job of working through the budget processes this year and really identifying opportunities for savings and keeping the cost as level as we can,” said Mayor Kelliher.

Soon after the council moved into a closed session that lasted about an hour, that motion was made by councilman Garrick.

The work session was live-streamed on the City of North Platte’s YouTube page.

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