12-01-2003 Council Special Minutes

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MINUTES CITY COUNCIL DECEMBER 1, 2003 with the Building Official position, reductions in the audit contract, reductions to seasonal wages, a reduction in the City's safety training contract, administrative cost reductions, a cap on the City's contribution toward employee health insurance and a cap on 2004 wage increases. The Administrator noted that deeper cuts would result in major impacts to services. He noted that the City has a need to maintain its infrastructure as well as the fact that the City already runs a lean operation. The Administrator noted that Little Canada has the lowest per capital operation costs of all the Ramsey County cities according to a 2002 State Auditor's report. Similarly, we conducted a staffing survey ofjurisdictions with populations within 2,000 of Little Canada's. The resuhs indicated that Little Canada is very lightly staffed. The Administrator reviewed 2002, 2003, and 2004 city tax rankings of Ramsey County cities, noting that all three years Little Canada was the 10°' lowest city of the 19 Ramsey Countyjurisdictions. The Administrator also pointed out that for the cities ranked lower than Little Canada, the disparity in tax rates is narrowing. He noted that Little Canada's city tax rate is decreasing in 2004 from 27.54] to 26.250. The City Administrator noted that since the TNT notices were sent out, the City has reduced the tax levy by $30,000. He noted that the impact of this reduction reduces the gross levy from 6.30% to 4.80% and the net levy increase from 7.36% to 5.63%. He then reviewed 2004 levy components that comprise the City's proposed total property tax levy of $2,102,880. These include the General Fund at $1,827,038, Debt Service Funds at $0, General Capital Improvement Funds at $87,000 and Infrastructure Capita( Improvement Funds at $188,842. The Administrator reviewed the City's tax levy history which has been relatively flat for the last several years with recent increases attributable to State actions such as Property Tax Reform, including elimination of HACA to cities and 2003/2004 LGA and Market Value Homestead Credit reductions. The Administrator reviewed 2004 General Fund revenue highlights noting that revenues are projected to be up by 8.9%. Impacts to revenue projections include increased property taxes, loss of Market Value Homestead Credit, loss of LGA, and an increase in fine revenue. General Fund trends for the past several years show slight growth, averaging 3.94% per year. However, the reliance on property taxes has shown a dramatic increase. In 1995 property taxes accounted for 55% of General Fund Revenues and for 2004 are projected at 79%.