The governing bodies of Baldwin City and Eudora have approved 2018 budgets for publication that will give their taxpayers reprieves.

The proposed Eudora 2018 budget would not change the current year’s mill levy, while Baldwin City’s proposed mill levy increase would be the smallest in four years.

The Eudora City Commission on Monday approved its 2018 budget for publication in the Lawrence Journal-World. The 39.501 mill levy in the proposed budget is unchanged from the 2017 budget. At that rate, the city of Eudora’s share of taxes on a $150,000 home would be $681.

The Eudora City Commission will have a public hearing on the 2018 budget at 7 p.m. Aug. 14 at City Hall and will consider approving the budget after receiving public comment. At that time, the commission can decrease expenditures listed in the published budget but cannot increase them.

The decision not to increase the mill levy for the coming year’s budget followed a 5.521 mill levy hike in Eudora’s 2017 budget. Behind much of that increase was a new 4 mill levy to raise money to be transferred to the city’s capital improvement fund.

Eudora City Manager Barack Matite said the 2018 budget also has 4 mills totaling $167,590 earmarked for the city’s capital improvement fund. The money will help build the fund for future projects and allow the city to start planning for needed major infrastructure improvements, he said.

“For example, we know 12th Street needs work,” he said. “We may be able to have engineering done for that project in 2019 and then look how to finance the work with bonds or grants.”

The budget does include increases to Eudora utility rates of 5 percent for water, 3 percent for electrical and wastewater and an increase in the monthly storm water fee from $2.25 to $3.25, Matite said.

The 2018 budget the Baldwin City Council approved for publication July 18 would increase the city’s mill levy to 44.748 mills, or 0.932 mills more than in 2017. The 0.932 mill increase is the smallest in recent years. The city had a 1.5 mill levy increase in the 2017 budget, a 4.671 mill increase in 2016 and 3.6 mill increase in 2015.

Brad Smith, the Baldwin City’s chief financial officer, said the 2018 mill levy increase was just less than the state tax lid allowed. The state’s tax lid limits local governing bodies from increasing mill levies beyond the increase in the consumer price index; any mill levy rate beyond that would have to be approved by a jurisdiction’s voters.

At 44.748 mills, Baldwin City’s share of taxes on a $150,000 home would be $772. Smith said no utility rate increases were included in the 2018 budget.

Although the published 2018 budget’s mill levy increase was just less than the tax lid allowed, the legislation that became effective this budget cycle had no bearing on the development of the city’s budget, Smith said.?

“We did our budget this year as we always did in the past without even considering the tax lid,” he said.

The Baldwin City Council will have a public hearing on the 2018 budget at 7 p.m. Aug. 1 at the Baldwin City Public Library.