The Fort Dodge City Council will begin its work on the proposed 2023-2024 budget when it meets this evening.

The spending plan that is being developed is for the fiscal year that begins July 1, 2024. However, state law requires cities to have their budgets done by mid-March. To meet that deadline, City Manager David Fierke and his staff started working on the budget weeks ago, and the elected officials will begin their effort tonight.

The council meeting will begin at 5 p.m. in the Municipal Building, 819 First Ave. S., with a budget workshop.

The council will review the proposed budgets for the water and sanitary sewer systems, plus the Fort Dodge Fiber municipal broadband utility.

Also, the council will examine proposed road use tax spending. The road use tax is the city’s share of gasoline tax revenue and vehicle registration fees. It pays for road maintenance, snow removal, street sweeping and related work.

The council’s regular business meeting will start at 6 p.m. in the Municipal Building.

During that meeting the council will consider a more aggressive property tax abatement incentive for developing new multi-family housing.

The proposal before the council would implement a 90 percent tax abatement for 10 years for rehabilitation of apartments downtown in addition to new construction of multi-family housing.