Butler City Council on Monday introduced the 2020 budget with corrected property assessment figures from the Butler County Assessment Office.

Council tabled voting on the budget, which maintains the current real estate tax rate of 43.25 mills, at a meeting Thursday because the city received an incorrect assessment of the value of property in Ward 3, which includes the Island neighborhood.

The assessment office reported to the city last week that the value of property in Ward 3 was $10.81 million, which would have been a decline of more than $6 million from the 2018 value of $17.07 million.

On Friday, the assessment found some mistakes and determined the correct assessment was $15.71 million.

A number of properties that are taxable were incorrectly coded as nontaxable in new software used by the assessment office, Amy Francis, chief assessor, said Monday.

“There was just a coding error when we switched software,” Francis said.

She said the assessment declined from $17.07 million to $15.71 million due to properties entering the tax incremental financing program that are assessed separately.

Council used the $15.71 million figure to draft a budget with a $9.47 million general fund. The version of the budget that was before council last week had a general fund of $9.38 million.

In addition to the general fund, the budget appropriates $1.98 million to the capital projects fund, $977,900 to the parking fund and $858,759 to the Liquid Fuels Tax fund.

Several other changes were made to the budget Monday.

Councilman Jeff Smith said $2,000 to take children enrolled in the city's Child Summer Food Service and Activities program swimming at Alameda Park was removed from the budget.

He said he wanted that money put back in the budget and requested an additional $2,000 for a youth basketball program.

Council agreed to both requests and transferred $4,000 from the $10,000 that was budgeted for Butler Downtown. The remaining $6,000 was reallocated for police and fire department vehicle maintenance. The money was intended to be used as a partial match for a grant a number of years ago, but the grant program no longer exists, Mayor Ben Smith said.

The budget does not include money for a July 4 fireworks display.

Ben Smith said the city hasn't paid for the fireworks in years. The cost is covered by donations, he said.

In addition to the budget, council introduced a salary ordinance that includes raises for non-union employees.