Minutes - Council - 02/20/1975 - Joint with Planning

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COMBINED ~EETING CITY OF RANSEY COUNCIL & PLANNING & ZONING CO~I$SION February 20, 1975 The meeting was called to order by the Mayor, Mr. Cox. Present were Mr. f~rham,. ~r. Reimann, Mrs. Oliphant, iNr. Steffens, Mr. Fields, county Commissioner, ~r. Richard SChneider and .Mr. Wins- low Holasek, Mayor and Councilman from Andover, Mr. Winder,. Chair- man from B~rns, Mr. Jerry ~nderson, legislator, and Mr. Clawson,' legislator, Mr. Sorteberg, Mr. Bodle, Mr. Gamec, and Mr. Charles Weaver of the Metropolitan Comncil. Mr. Cox stated we have sOme major items those present introduce themselves. Of concel~. Ne asked-that Mr. Steffens introduced the. memo which had Just been adopted by the Ramsey Council. Mr. Jerry Anderson said at a meeting he had Just attended the-NE showed that what Nr. Steffens had stated was true and that the present system is not working. Mr. Weaver said he was in complete agreement with the memo read 'by Nr..Steffens. He said the Metro area is very different from the outlying areas. ~r. Cox said that our nei~or~ng communities have the. same prob- lems as we do. Mr. Anderson said-Mr. Steffens was a very good witness for the legislature. Mr. Steffens said that inview of the fact that they use more current population figUres for the levy limitations,-we should be able to use the same figUres on the state aid programs. On Item 1 b): This creates inequities in the cOmmunities with newer construction. Half our homes have been built since 1972. Older homes are paying less taxes. Newer homes pay more than their share. Mr. Cox stated market values here are down.. Mr. Anderson said the legislature has to kick in $200,O00,000 in-tax relief for schools. We suggest changing this tax picture on a staged basis. They seem to feel they would have to take off the 5% limitations. Discussion on local government aids exclUding schools. Mr. Cox asked'the'other ~yors and chairman present if they had any questions or comments at this time. Mr. Weaver said politically increasing.'taxes is a difficult sit- uation and feels people should be informed, or educated about how taxes are figUred and how they affect everyone. Because of the recession and the inflation, the market value sit- uation is approaching a situation that hasn't ~ha,ppened since 1935. Mr. 'Steffens thinks values are'now starting down. Metropolitan Framework Guide: Mr. Steffens said he capsul.ed on page 3 the important items in.this position paper. Population figUres forRamsey, Andover, HamLake, etc. are too~low. This. is a penalty guide. We don't, think the legislature should support