When I ran for Mayor in 2006 the City of Isanti credit rating was Baa or 1 step away from a Junk/Speculative rating. After years of cutting debt ($9.1 million in 2006 to $2.9 million 2017), creating a Long Term Financial Plan, reducing Admin cost to 20% less than peer cities & maintaining tight control on City spending we increased our Credit Rating several times over to AA+ or a High Quality investment. The higher the rating the more we save on interest charges. So many little and big decisions go into this great accomplishment including decisions that at the time may not be popular but are necessary.
We have had a 77% increase in per capita income and a 54% increase in Household income making Isanti 1st in both categories in our County.
We accomplished all this while going through the Great Recession. We also have put millions into City infrastructure such as our Water Treatment Plant that eliminated cancer causing radium, 10 year Pavement Management Plan to improve roads and 10 year Capital Replacement Plan. We completed a $2.3 million pretreat facility on our sanitary sewer system. We added police officers while cutting administrative staff. We added Farmers Market, Street Dances, 67% increase in Park land, Community Garden, technology improvements, new and expanded equipment for Public Works and Police Department and more at same time we cut debt. We lowered Sewer base rates 50% & water base rates 25%. We cut City tax rates 5% in 2018 and will be cutting taxes for 2019 as well.
We have won two prestigious Business Recruitment Awards from the Economic Development Association of Minnesota. Jobs in Isanti grew a net 36% and we have had a 32% net increase in total businesses in this same period.
We were recently recognized as the 6th Safest City in the State out of 853 total Cities.
Together we can achieve anything