That deficit is in the general fund, which pays for police and fire protection, recreation, parks, the Fort Dodge Public Library, the Blanden Memorial Art Museum and numerous other government functions. The general fund is dependent on property tax revenue, and it’s typically the toughest piece of the city budget to balance.

“We do have ideas on how to get to a balanced budget,” City Manager David Fierke told the City Council Monday. “We’re going to be able to get there.”

He told the elected officials that he will present a plan for a balanced budget in two weeks.

“This might be the one of the toughest years we’ve had,” Mayor Dave Flattery said of the budget situation.

The Dodger Area Rapid Transit bus service is not part of the general fund, but the council will face a decision on its spending plan.

The overall operating budget for the bus service is about $1.5 million.

A lot of that money comes from the federal and state governments. The city’s share, which comes from a separate tax levy, is $262,000. It has remained at that level for about a decade.

The bus service is operated for the city by the MIDAS Council of Governments.

On Monday, Stacy Lentsch, the executive director of MIDAS, and Shelly Mahan, the transit director, asked the City Council to boost the local support to $375,000 in the next fiscal year.

Doing that would require increasing the property tax levy for DART.

Lentsch said DART had to increase pay for drivers to attract and retain them. She said the number of drivers is at an “all-time low.”

She added that insurance costs have gone up and the price of new buses has tripled since the COVID pandemic.

According to Lentsch, DART provided about 102,000 rides last year.

She said that equals about 407 people a day riding buses.

“People are riding DART,” she said.

The council took no action on the request.

The council also reviewed the following budgets:

Tort liability insurance: $605,988, unchanged from the current year

Information Technology

Proposed: $262,500

Current: $186,000

General administration

Proposed: $250,000

Current: $257,480

City Clerk’s Office

Proposed: $232,738

Current: $225,637

City Manager’s Office

Proposed: $171,305

Current: $164,336