11-28-2012 Council Agenda - Laserfiche WebLink

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515 Little Canada Road, Little Canada, MN 55117 -1600 (651) 766 -4029 / FAX: (651) 766 -4048 ww w.ci.little -ca nada. mn. us MEMORANDUM TO: Mayor Blesener and Members of the City Council FROM: Joel Hanson, City Administrator Sharon Provos, Finance Director DATE: November 24, 2012 RE: 2013 Budget Update MAYOR Bill Blesener COUNCIL Rick Montour John Keis Michael McGraw Shelly Boss ADMINISTRATOR Joel R. Hanson As a quick recap, the City Council certified a levy increase of 1.97% for our 2013 budget. There have been no significant changes to expense or revenue projects since our last budget workshop. Staff did revise the Local Government Aid allocations to eliminate the $86,685 levy in the General Capital Improvement Fund ( #400) by transferring an equal amount of LGA from the General Fund ( #101) to make up for the lost dollars. This has no net levy impact, but it does put us closer to our goal of weaning the operating budget off of LGA. When combined with the $31,562 of budgeted 2013 surplus, we are at 60% of our goal or potentially farther if we determine that we don't need to levy for the loss of the entire in the General Capital Improvement Fund (that can be reviewed further with 2014's budget). Related to our 1.97% levy increase, we have attached information compiled by Ramsey County Property Taxes and Records. (Net Levy Comparison & Estimated Percent Change in 2013 Tax on Median Valued Horne) You will note that certified municipal levies range from a reduction of 15.4% (Spring Lake Park) to a high of 34.9% (Gem Lake). The average levy increase is 3.6 %. With our proposed levy increase, our tax rate will increase to 30.855 %. This is an increase of 9.95% in our rate from 2012 to 2013. (The average rate increase for Ramsey County municipalities is 9.25 %.) Even with our small levy increase, the much higher rate increase is essentially due to the continued decline in our tax base resulting from value adjustments. Our tax base has declined 5.93% from 2012. As a point of reference, the decline for suburban Ramsey County is 4.92% while the base for the entire County dropped by 5.03 %. It should also be pointed out that, depending of value adjustments to individual properties, tax impacts will vary dramatically. Salary scales can also be reviewed at this meeting. They will be distributed on Monday with Kathy's return to work given those files are under her control. The City's budget adoption hearing (Truth in Taxation) will be held on December 19th at 7:30 p.m.