Minutes - Council - 09/11/2007 - Laserfiche WebLink

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resolutions to declare costs and this sort of thing. If this were a general maintenance item it would just be taken care of. He continues to advocate for including this in the general fund for 2008, falling under the category of property tax relief. Councilmember Dehen concurred. He stated he is also an advocate in taking this type of maintenance issue out of the assessment process and putting it into the general fund. Under the logistics of that, some people will feel they just got assessed, but long term it is a better process to include it in the general fund. Councilmember Elvig stated he agrees that staff has said Ramsey stacks up good against other communities with their tax base. That is also saying that other communities add taxes back with franchise fees and go over the top of Ramsey, and they have different revenue sources like LGA. Ramsey is doing quite well in comparison to other communities. He spoke with Public Works staff and asked how much work this is, and their position was that it is really no big deal because it is along the same lines as sending out pubic notices for overlays. He is not sure the distinction that would be made if the City were to take on seal coating as a cost. He is not saying he is against that, but if the City were to take that on he would ask if they should also take on overlays as a maintenance issue on their roads. As far as tax relief, that would only be to the people that will be assessed this year, but the rest of the people will be paying for it so it would be raising everyone's taxes by $90,000. He is not saying he is against this yet, but there has not been a strong enough discussion as to the ramifications of what this policy does to the people that have paid the assessment and now will pay other people's assessments on top of it. Councilmember Look stated the budget this year is not being raised by $90,000. There is $140,000 left over that the County initially said would not be there, and is now there. As far as the overlay portion of it, other communities assess 50% of overlay and that is not an issue in comparison to other communities. It is property tax relief. He feels bad for those that have paid it. However, he looks at it similar to perhaps the Country of Luxemburg when Germany invaded and they were on the brink of learning German until they were liberated, at which point they could benefit from the liberation, but did have to deal with the problem until then. The ones that have paid at this point have paid. The situation is as it is, and he would feel they should compare the City to neighboring communities and change this as soon as they can. Councilmember Strommen stated she is not sure she agrees with the characterization that this is property tax relief, but that it is just a difference in how it is paid, either incrementally or over time. The reality is that the budget is such that they do not have a lot of extra money sitting around. They are making tough choices about the services the City offers. In the next case they will set the budget and levy, and set the parameters they have to work with in the budget. These all become trade-offs. If they implement this policy they will pot be implementing something else. It is important to put this in the context of the budget so the residents understand the decisions the Council is making. Council~ember Dehen stated it is a little different than just paying this incrementally or over time. They are holding the City out as having a certain tax rate and a certain criteria, but they are not including crackfilling and sealcoating as part of that tax. So, it is kind of deceptive in the sense that they are holding the tax rate at a certain amount, and then someone has to pay for that City Council / September 11,2007 Page 13 of 22