Agenda - Council - 06/23/1981 - Laserfiche WebLink

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primarily for parks capital improvements and the equipment revolving fund. Park dedieation fees are to be used for park capital improvements, and landfill fees and dedicated to restoring the land to a recreation area. State road construction aid is used to build and improve state aid highways. Four bond issues since 1978 have been used to financ~..local street improvements, and the bond payments are totally paid through special assessments collected from the benefitted property. The bond payment schedule is contained in Figure 6. Ramsey is now on the verge of being served by metropolitan sewer service. At the same time that it is constructing the local sewer system, the city will also construct a water supply system. In keeping with previous policy, bond payments for these improvements will be paid entirely from special assessments. Borrowing Capacity. To date, the city does not have any bonded debt that is subject to the debt limit, since all of the revenue needed to make the bond payments is derived from special assessments. Therefore, the city has unused borrowing capacity equal to its debt limit of 6 2/3% of its assessed valuation. Projections of the city's assessed valuation, debt limit and borrowing capacity are contained in Figure 7. If the city adopts a bond issue in the future for a non- revenue producing purpose, such as park acquisition and development, such a bond would be subject to the debt limit. Property taxes raised to make such bond payments would be exempt from levy limit under current laws, however. IV. Mill Rate Projections Figure 7 also shows a projection of the mill rate under the high, medium an low population projections. These are presented for discussion only, since there are many assumptions and potential variables that would affect them. Generally, the mill rate would decrease substantially as Ramsey becomes subject to levy limits in 1982. After that it would remain relatively constant. This projection is for limited levies only, so if the city has significant amounts of exempt or special levies in the future (e.g. for bond payments, welfare purposes, mandatory programs), the mill rate will be greater. Another variable that the assessed value projections do not take into consideration is the industrial growth that the city is proposing in its comprehensive plan. The expenditure projections do not take into consideration the additional cost of city services to serve this accelerated industrial growth either. Current law allows special levies and levy limit adjustments to compensate somewhat for the increased costs. The city should carefully consider whether the increase in assessed value will offset the increase in the cost of services or whether there will be an effect on the mill rate. The city should also remember -7-