09-10-2003 Council Agenda - Laserfiche WebLink

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in order to address that, each municipality could determine if they want to use the suburban HRA levy dollars for the Housing Resource Center. A question was then asked whether or not a municipality would have to compete for their dollars if they were not used within a certain number of years. Commissioner Rettman answered that any dollars that are not spent by a municipality within five years would go into a pool, but if the municipality indicates they will be using the money in the future, they can continue banking the dollars. If the dollars are not used within five years, and the municipality indicates they will not use the dollars, they will be placed in a special pool. The goal was to get the money into the development of housing from a countywide and suburban perspective. The money is to be invested in housing by cleaning up blight and doing other types of things which have been articulated by many of you and is part of our HRA goal. Mark Sather questioned if the County has the authority to create this entity and then could municipalities voluntarily subscribe to it so it wouldn't have to be just suburban Ramsey County? For example, if there were six of the suburbs that wanted to participate in this program, they could agree to the County to have that levy and those municipalities that have local HRA's could continue to collect that money locally. Could an option be not having it suburban countywide? Mayor Kysylynzsyn answered that the levy has to be applied suburban countywide and Commissioner Rettman affirmed. Mr. Sather said that sounded like a forgone conclusion. If the County says that it cannot do just a portion, it is in fact doing that. What makes St. Paul different from White Bear Lake? Commissioner Rettman told Mr. Sather that St. Paul is grandfathered in, therefore, Ramsey County may not levy in St. Paul. Roseville or White Bear Lake, for example, already had an HRA levy and they can levy. The county can levy both. In St. Paul they cannot. Mr. Sather asked if there was special legislation for Ramsey County that allows it to exempt St. Paul. Commissioner Rettman said it is not exempt, it was excluded by statute. It is not a part of our HRA at all. Mayor Kysylynczyn stated this is where you get into that issue of taxation without representation. Commissioner Victoria Reinhardt addressed the- group- stating the main reason -- - -- - for the meeting is because of the proposed legislation and to determine what you can and can't do with HRA funds. If you going to get to the same goal, then the potential is that the other way, it would actually have a negative impact on the communities that were not part of that coalition as far as what they would have access to. As a suburban HRA, municipalities could potentially lose the ability to A n -12-