Agenda - Council - 10/20/1980 - Special

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,-4 (e .' c. 1) Sani tary sewer 2) City water 3 ) Airport 4 ) Grant involvement 5) Metro Guideline Costs (Mandated) 6) State Guideline Costs (Mandated) 7) Legislative lobbying Inasmuch as the above is probably only a partial list of things we could be involved 'in outside of our general government operation, we are very cognizant that we are goang to be involved in some of the above or more here in the City of Ramsey. We have also learned here in Ramsey that the governing bodies above us don't mind using the City of Ramsey. 1) State Aid - We see in this area State Legislators cannot be depended on to see that a proper distribution of these dollars is made. 2) Revenue Sharing - We see a similar situation due to the way the law is written. However, it is the best government grant programs. The tough part of it is our share depends on 'our tax effort. So if ourt.ax effort is low so is our ,- share of' Revenue Sharing. 3) Removal of Aid Funds - We also know that the above legi- slati ve bodies will apply the same percentage when removing their aids even though they didn't give it to us in that manner. During our preparation of the 1980 budget in 1979, we increased-taxes and the result was received a $.37,912 increase State Aid. However, since the date we received that good news we learned of a short fall in State Revenue which was interpreted back to the City as 8..3% reduction in our forthcoming State Aid for' ,1981 budget year. (The crazy thing about this is the distri- bution of State Aid is not done on an equal percentage basis but the re'- duction of it is as that is fair.) Due to our 'windfall the 8.3% percent reduction didn't hurt Ramsey. However, had we reduced taxes during our 1980 budget year for that budget we would have a real dilennna this forth- coming budget year of 1981 as our State Aid increase would have been only $9,478. Further we would have suffered and 8..3% lost due to short fall in State Aid. The big question is how do we approach the 1981 mill levy. We have talked about this levy limitation problem for several years and 1st year we did -take a small step forward in raising the mill levy and as pointed out above we were luc:kywe did it. This governing body knows the problems that Ramsey is facing with its growth and we know the needs. We also know there is a price tag on these things. Consequently, the dollar base we establish in our 1981 ad valorm tax levy will be dollar base from here on except each year we will be authorized to increase it by eight (8) percent. As an