09-10-2003 Council Agenda - Laserfiche WebLink

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Commissioner Rettman answered that it did not include funding for the HRC, but what it does do, is to give all of the local elected officials the dollars and from there they would make the determination on how to fund the HRC. Commissioner Weissner then asked if the HRC would make the services available countywide or to the entire suburban area and if this was enough money? Commissioner Rettman responded it would be more than enough and actually it would give the local officials the ability to choose how much they use, they might want to buy even more services. The HRC would be funded from the decisions of the local officials. They would determine how much they would purchase from HRC and Ramsey County would have little to do with it. Commissioner Reinhardt added that the County right now does have a contract for certain services with the HRC, but not with levy dollars. It appears some of the municipalities are using some of their current levy as a city to pay for that and that was one of the concerns. It is basically taking if off of the city levy and putting it into the County levy and then the municipalities can make the determination on what they use the money for in regard to the HRA. Roseville John Kysylyczyn, Mayor of Roseville, said their council had not had an in -depth discussion on this proposal, but felt their city council would be opposed. In 2003 Roseville was one of the only cities that actually cut taxes. In addition, Mayor Kysylyczyn stated Roseville's 2004 budget would absorb, not pass on, $700,000 in state aid cuts. Therefore, the position of the council is not to see any new additional taxes except in extremely rare circumstances. Also, one of the issues regarding the institution of this tax is that it may be taxation without representation. As Mayor Kysylyczyn understands it, the tax can only be applied within the suburban areas and at least four of the seven members of the HRA do not live within the taxing area, Another concern is that Roseville may be subsidizing other cities because this tax appears to be applied on a net tax capacity. Therefore, Roseville may end up paying in a disproportionately large share and would not receive the same benefits or equal benefits to that of the other cities. As to the 35W coalition, they had decided that a more fair way of billing for HRC is to bill on 50% net tax capacity, 50% population. Mayor Kysylyczyn further stated there is no way that a suburban HRA levy from the County can be applied in that type of a fashion, city by city. Also, you cannot have a- separate levy for each individual city, it is one levy that is applied across the board to every suburban taxing jurisdiction to every city. Another issue is the HRA legislative proposal that the coalition put forward this last legislative session. The municipalities can already get together and work together on projects as cities. The coalition proposal was simply an attempt to try to cut red tape. There are other mechanisms and other ways that could be used to get the