Latest local news, weather and high school sports for Tri-State area

KEOKUK, IOWA -- Lower budgets usually mean cuts in programs and services. But not in Keokuk Iowa.

The city council has approved the upcoming yearly budget that takes effect July 1, 2013.

Last year the annual budget for the city of Keokuk was more than $27 million dollars. But this year, it's dropped by nearly four million dollars.

Mayor Tom Marion said the drop is because the city doesn't have to pay for its share of the airport runway reconstruction project or the street reconstruction during the sewer separation project.

"Property tax is not going up and we haven't raised taxes for the last couple of years and that's part of my platform, we're not going to. We have not cut services or personnel, so we think we're in pretty good shape compared to a lot of cities," Marion said.

City finance director John Russell has compiled the budget for the city for the past five years. He said he starts the budget process about three months before meetings begin between the council and the city department heads.

"I try to estimate where we're going to finish up the current year before I slot in the numbers for the upcoming budget year. And a lot of the numbers are predictable based on past experience," Russell said.

The overall budget totals $23.896 million dollars. Marion said he's happy the way the budget came together this year.