Minutes - Council Work Session - 09/13/2016

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Finance Director Lund explained how the engineering services for those projects would be recorded differently in 2017. Councilmember Riley referenced the LGA line item which was recorded as zero and asked if that is correct. Finance Director Lund confirmed that item will be zero and the City will not be receiving LGA in 2017. Councilmember Riley stated that he appreciates the decreases that have been made to the budget since the last review but noted that he would like to see the budget reduced further to match the tax capacity rate to that of 2015. Finance Director Lund stated that the fiscal disparities number is not yet available and therefore it would be hard to amend the budget based on the tax capacity rate. She noted that once that figure is known the tax capacity rate may decrease. Mayor Strommen stated that the preliminary figures must be adopted in September and while those figures could be decreased once additional information is known, the figures cannot be increased once adopted and she would not want to see items cut that may not need to be cut. Councilmember Riley stated that he would still prefer to get closer to where the City was in 2015. Mayor Strommen asked which areas Councilmember Riley would like to cut from. She asked Finance Director Lund for additional information on the relation between a dollar amount and points for the tax capacity rate. Finance Director Lund replied that one point roughly equals about $200,000. She noted that there is about $66,000 in the contingency fund as there are still contract negotiations underway with the police department. Councilmember Riley stated that he would like to cut $188,000 from the budget but did not have suggestions on where to cut those funds. Councilmember Williams stated that she had some initial sticker shock from the five-year budget projections. She stated that she would like to manage increases in the next five years and wanted the Council to be mindful of decisions that are made today that will have implications down the road. Finance Director Lund noted that the public works garage is included in that plan. Mayor Strommen stated that although there is an increase it is a modest increase and noted that there are some decisions to be made in the future that will impact that five-year budget. She noted that Ramsey is a growing community and the City will have some decisions to make on City Council Work Session / September 13, 2016 Page 2 of 5