Agenda - Council - 05/27/1980 - Laserfiche WebLink

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utility property for distribution to local units of government, the Board may, by majority vote, committ the League to support such a proposal in lieu of the electric gross revenues tax described above. Property tax administration In recent years, initiatives in state and local fiscal policy have focused on avoiding increases in the tax burden on local property by providing alternate sources of revenue. The League believes, however, that a number of reforms in the property tax system itself are needed to make it a more equitable revenue instrument, including the follow- ing: The fact that federally and state-subsidized housing units are assessed differently in the cities depending on the city's popu- lation creates a disincentive for cities of less than 10,000 population to accommo- date such housing. This assessment dis- parity should be eliminated. 2. All property tax laws should be recodified. The number of classifications of property for property tax purposes should be reduced. Clarification of the prohibition against local sales and income tax The current statutory provision which prohi- bits cities from increasing a present tax or enact- ing a new tax on sales or income has been inter- preted to prohibit not only a local general sales or income tax, but also special taxes such as ad- missions taxes. The League recommends that the statute be amended to clarify that cities may im- pose special local taxes including but not limited to hotel and motel taxes and admissions taxes. Taxation and assessment of railroads The Legislature in 1979 adopted a new system for the taxation of railroad property. This will result in increased valuations for some cities. However, those cities under the overall levy limi- tation would not benefit from this increased valua- tion unless their levy limit base could be modified to reflect this additional new property. The League, therefore, recommends that the levy limit base of a governmental subdivision be increased by the amount determined by multiplying the 1979 mill levy of the governmental subdivision by the total increase in assessed value of railroad property in the governmental subdivision as a result of the passage of the new law relating to taxation of rail road property. As a result of recent court decisions, the entire special assessment process has been modified. Railroad property should be subject to special assessment as is all other commercial, industrial, and other property in the state. DEVELOPMENT STRATEGIES Ph il osoph y The Sixties and Seventies taught that natural resources are limited and governmental spending is finite. Community development planning was recognized as necessary to focus local energies in a constructive manner. Developmental and fiscal tools were created and legislated and technical competence was acquired to implement these policies. Governmental funding was poured into the community development process. The Eighties should be a decade of action. With the focus, funding, tools, technical compe- tence, and motivation to act, we must coordinate and channel our efforts. We are in a transition from a "throw-away" society to a "reuse and recycle" society. We cannot afford to waste the substantial capital investment already made by the cities and private sector. We must build on this investment: to reinvest, to the extent possible, in our existing cities with their in-place infrastructures; and to manage our economic growth in a manner that will maximize the use of this investment in order to hold down the cost of .public and private ser- vices and energy necessary to support this econ- omic growth. -5-