Agenda - Council - 01/26/2010 - Laserfiche WebLink

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Councilmember Look noted the City had cut taxes, maintained the services, and invested in the City's future this past year. Mayor Ramsey stated the City was also saving approximately $30,000 per year when the City changed the newsletter procedures. He noted there was also no public cost to the taxpayers for the snowmobiling signs recently put up. Councilmember Jeffrey stated he had received a number of comments regarding the elimination of the Community education funding. He asked the Council to relook at that particular program. Mayor Ramsey invited the public to make comments. Mark Koren, resident, read from a prepared statement he presented to the Anoka County tax hearing regarding the outcry of business owners across the City and State. He asked if it mattered what he had to say tonight and would the City listen to what he had put together. He asked of the taxes coming in, how much came from business and how much came from residential. Finance Director Lund responded she would email him that information. Councilmember Elvig stated the City did not handle fiscal disparities and that was an issue to be brought to Anoka County and the Metropolitan- Council. He noted the City's costs kept increasing and he applauded staff for cutting costs. Harry Niska, 5766 - 167th Crossing NW, thanked the Council for making Ramsey as efficient as possible. He thanked the Council for realizing a lot of people were struggling financially right now. He encouraged the Council when times were good to also keep Ramsey as efficient as possible. He suggested on the Ramsey's City website to have a link prominently displayed on the homepage for the information presented tonight and to have the PowerPoint presentation on the website so citizens did-not need to page through many financial documents. Bill Kingston stated he lived on a parcel that had a split PID so half of his property values were Elk River and half were Anoka. He indicated he had a concern about having taxation without representation in one of the school districts. He noted his PID had two property valuations with two different taxes. He asked how the City tax could be higher on the lower value than it was on the higher value. He noted the Mil rate was not consistent. He indicated this was a concern for him. He recommended the City do their own presentation as to how taxes were calculated. Finance Director Lund requested Mr. Kingston send her a copy of his tax statement, but she believed this might have something to do with the split school districts. Elk River High School Government Class 12~' Graders introduced themselves to the Council CITIZEN INPUT None. City Council /December 8, 2009 Page 3 of 10