Minutes - Council - 12/04/2006 - Truth in Taxation

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James Couch, 15880 Traprock Street NW, Ramsey, stated that according to the Anoka County Union the City of Ramsey is proposing an increase twice as much as some of the neighboring cities such as Ham Lake, Andover, East Bethel, and Anoka. He questioned if the City could actually justify the increase the citizens are being asked to burden. Mayor Gamec replied that the he believed that the Council could justify the decisions they have made. He noted that it is difficult to compare the City of Ramsey to other communities because of the difference in services that are provided. For example Andover does not have a Police Department. Finance Officer Lund stated that it was difficult to compare cities because everybody handles their levies differently. You are not always comparing apples to apples. Councilmember Elvig stated that he was not necessarily in agreement with the proposed budget, but he wanted to note that they were not talking about taxes raising 27 % they were talking about a tax cap of 27%. He explained that the tax cap is 1'2% higher than last year and that is what they can control. Revenues for the cities have raised 27% and that is something the City very consciously tries to do. If they are raising revenue by 27% and the tax cap only went up 1'2% that is a good thing. His discouragement is that if they are raising that much revenue why can't they decrease the tax cap. He stated that his big concern is what happens when the bank goes down. Mr. Couch stated that next year they might be in twice the amount of trouble if house valuations drop. He suggested that the City needed to have an alternative plan in place just in case things go sour. Councilmember Elvig explained that is why they reviewed the 2006 budget at a quarter and a half year and once they realized they had a problem cuts were made. Larry Amundson, Ramsey, stated that he has lived in his house for ten years. The City didn't receive anticipated revenues in 2006 and now the residents are stuck paying for services from last year. Mayor Gamec noted that the City Council made cuts in July and those services were not added back into the budget. That being said there is a need to replace outdated equipment that is part of the 2007 budget. Mr. Amundson stated that he has had a property next to his that has been on the market for 1 1'2 years. When he first moved to the areas houses sold very quickly, but now there has been a drastic down slide. The City can't gamble on what might happen. Mayor Gamec stated that the City tried to make a good projection based on the information they had, but when the market dropped so significantly and so quickly that was very difficult to predict. Mr. Amundson noted that on his property tax statement for 2007, he was seeing a pretty significant increase pertaining to a school district levy. City Council Truth in Taxation/December 4, 2006 Page 5 of9