Agenda - Council - 10/27/2009 - Laserfiche WebLink

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the discussions have taken place, then, pick the option that would work the best. It seems premature to try to pick an option at this point. City Administrator Ulrich stated that this is primarily what gets conveyed to the residents with their tax information. He recommended against setting it high unless Council is trying for the maximum in flexibility. He added .that the direction to staff from Council was to lean more toward being fiscally conservative. Councilmember Look inquired of the different options presented, to which Finance Officer Lund summarized the options as follows: Option 1: Tax rate same as 2009; Option 2: 2009 tax rate + limited staff reductions; Option 3: Zero percent property tax increase /limited staff reduction; Option 4: Market - Value Homestead Credit restored and limited staff reductions; Option 5: Same levy as 2009; and Option 6:. Maximum levy allowed for 2010. Councilmember Look stated that when a property value goes down, people know their tax amount should go down as well - so you are waiting for that decrease. When we are pitching a zero percent impact but you do not see a decrease in taxes, it's hard to say we are keeping it the same when in actuality it would go up. Councilmember Elvig questioned if Council decides to not take the full levy, do we lock ourselves in future years. Finance Officer Lund explained that the starting place for next year will be our levy and explained the process. City Administrator Ulrich interjected these are State imposed levy limits and that we can levy back market value homestead credit loss. Councilmember Elvig expressed concern about the levy limit issue — we keep going down and down and down. Mayor Ramsey stated that if property values go back up, then we will be "out of the woods" so to speak. If we cut back for next year, what will happen to us if the property value starts to go UP. Ms. Lund replied then the tax rate will go down — the levy is based on dollar amounts. Councilmember Uehen cautioned we need to be careful to not just think about how cheap we can get things done. He liked the idea of saving money too, but he was concerned about it as well, Ms. Lund explained page 2 of her hand out and described how staff got it down to a balanced budget, Councilmember McGlone stated that we have equity in property and believed there would be a change for the positive in the future; we have untapped resources. City Council Work Session Page 3 of 10