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The City provides a variety of municipal services. These include a full-time police department, a volunteer fire department, engineering services, street and park maintenance, building inspections, planning and zoning, public improvements, general administrative services, and public water and sewer utilities in the urban service areas. The City adopts an annual budget for the General Fund and the EDA Special Revenue Fund. Legal level of control is at the function level. Department heads may transfer resources within a function as they see fit. Transfers between functions, however, need special approval from the City Council. LOCAL ECONOMY The City has an unemployment rate of 2.6% in comparison to the state average of 2.6%. Ramsey has an employed labor force of 15,601. Anoka County, in which Ramsey is located, has an employed labor force of 204,619 and an unemployment rate of 2.5%. The median household income is $112,060. There are approximately 10,164 housing units in the City. The median home value is $345,000. In addition, there were 183 new single-family homes and 61 multi -family housing units with a valuation of $77.9 million constructed in 2024. There were several residential projects under way at year end 2024. These included: Lynwood with 137 attached/detached homes, Trott Brook Crossing with 270 single family homes, Waterfront Village with 108 single family homes, Riverstone South with 244 attached/detached townhomes and Skyline Apartments with 133 rental units and 10,000 square feet of retail. Six hundred and twenty-seven businesses call Ramsey home; those businesses employ nearly 7,576 people. Five new commercial permits were issued in 2024 with a permit valuation of $92.5 million. Some of the projects completed in 2024 were an Aldi's grocery store with 20,665 square feet, BLIP 5 industrial building with 84,000 square feet, Jam Hops gymnastics building with 22,000 square feet, St Katherine Drexel Church with 16,000 square feet and a 46,000 industrial expansion by Soderholm. Hilton Home 2, a 98-unit hotel, is to be completed in 2025 along with a 68,000 square foot expansion by Diamond Graphics. The City has three major industrial districts containing multiple business parks with a combined capacity of over 500 acres and 70 industrial/office buildings. Bunker Lake Industrial Park, the newest 115-acre business park, west of Armstrong Boulevard, opened in 2018 and now has 984,000 square feet of industrial buildings constructed and has over 50 acres left for development. Upon completion, this business park is estimated to generate around three million dollars in annual property taxes and create about 1,500 jobs. In addition, the city is actively developing a city center known as The COR (Center of Ramsey). The development vision for this 400-acre area located in the heart of Ramsey is for it to become the region's center of retail, restaurants, service and office space, outdoor entertainment and parks, community amenities and housing. LONG-TERM FINANCIAL PLANNING The City of Ramsey prepares a ten-year capital improvement plan in an attempt to anticipate major capital expenditures in advance of the year in which they are budgeted. The City has a policy to maintain unassigned General Fund balance in an amount equal to 50% of the following years adopted operating budget, plus prior year encumbrances (if any). This policy is designed to establish a fund balance at a level which is sufficient to avoid issuing debt to meet current operating needs. 16