Brainerd Public Utilities Presents Annual Budget Review for 2022

Brainerd Public Utilities presented their annual budget review for 2022 at the last city council meeting, where they also looked to get their 2023 estimated budget approved before the end of the year.

The projected total revenue for the end of 2022 is just over $30 million, while the original budget was set at $29 million.

For 2023, the utilities budget will make a significant jump all the way to $36 million. While most of the budget is centered around water and electric, the big budget jump results from crypto mining.

“Things are pretty much close to what we’ve had in 2022, except that I’ve added about $6.8 million related to the crypto mining business,” said Todd Wicklund, finance director for Brainerd Public Utilities. “We’ve all kinds of things related to that, but I took an educated guess as to what I thought the amount would be potentially in 2023, put that into the budget, so that’s how we ended with $36 million in revenue for 2023.”

A motion made to approve the budget for 2023 carried.