12-02-97 Council Special Minutes (2)

Home Browse Search

MINUTES CITY COUNCIL DECEMBER 2,1997 making up the balance. The other funds are supported by user charges, assessments, or other non-propeRy tax sources. The Administrator began a detailed review of the General Fund. General Fund expenses are projected to increase by 4.1% or just over $70,000. The largest increase in costs is for police protection at $27,000. This is primarily due to the expiration of grants associated with the Rice Street corridor car and the Crime Prevention position. On the positive side, the contract with the Little Canada Fire Department is decreasing by over $8,000 due to some large savings in insurance expenses. Generai Fund revenues are projected to increase by 4.8% to offset expenses. Key changes are new license fees accounting for over $6,300 in increased revenues and increased State Aids totally over $13,000. The City Administrator presented a graph showing the rate of increase in General Fund expenses from 1993 throu~h 1998. The increase has been slow and steady without any major jumps. The avecage annual increase for this time period is 4.3%. The Administrator explained a pie chart which indicated that Public Safety accounts for 53% of proposed 1998 expenditures, while General Government accounts for 21%, Public Works 17%, and Community Services 9%. The Administrator next compared per capita spendin~ with neighboring cities. (Little Canada -$158; Lauderdale -$165; White Bear Lake -$169; Falcon Heights -$186; Arden Hills -$190; North St. Paul -$200; Vadnais Heights -$210; Shoreview -$222; New Brighton $239; Mounds View - $265; Roseville -$282; and Maplewood -$291) He noted that Little Canada is in the bottom third for per capita spending for police services, in the middle for fire services, lowest for street maintenance spending, in the lower half for parks and recreation services, in the bottom third for general government services spendin~, and has the lowest per capital spending for the total of all basic services. The Administrator felt this reflected the City's efforts to operate as efficiently as possible. The Administrator reviewed what the various City services cost the average taxpayer. Using an example of a$109,400 home, the City's portion of property taxes would be approximately $296.65. Of this amount, $105.03 covered the cost of public safety, $98.42 covered debt service, general ~overnment was at $41.91, public works at $34.08, community services was $17.21, and there was no cost to taxpayers for capital improvements.