02/25/1991 Council Minutes - Laserfiche WebLink

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1 1 1 COUNCIL MINUTES FEBRUARY 25, 1991 equity funding and was also concerned that the state "is taking money from one pocket and putting it in another pocket and loosing some money in the transition ". Mayor Bisel also noted that the Truth in Taxation law needs some revision because it is very confusing to the public. Senator Dahl said he had heard these same concerns from several other cities and is proposing that a meeting be set for all communities to sit down and review specific concerns about this law. Mayor Bisel expressed concern because a large regional park bisects this city and this city must provide fire and police protection without any reimbursement from the State. He asked Senator Dahl to support legislation that would allow this city to set a levy or recreational tax on the park to recover some of the costs of providing these services. Senator Dahl said he would investigate this matter to see if there is some relief available. Senator Dahl explained that the DNR does provide support to the cities surrounding the Carlos Avery Preserve in lieu of property taxes. Council Member Neal noted that there is a state prison in Lino Lakes. In the past the State paid for fire calls within the prison property. The city no longer receives support from the state for fire protection and this could be a costly item for the Centennial Fire Department. Council Member Neal will call Bob Fafth, Administrative Assistant for Senator Dahl, to find out under what authority the funding was terminated. Mr. Schumacher noted that this city has lost state aid in the past few years and it appears more will be lost. He asked Senator Dahl if the state will drop levy limits to allow the cities to regain the money lost to reduced state aid. Senator Dahl said it appears that the levy limits will be eliminated by August, 1991. Mayor Bisel noted that recycling has been well accepted by the Lino Lakes residents. He noted that other non - reusable natural resources that could be addressed such as designing school bus routes so that only one bus would run on each residential street. There are three (3) school districts in Lino Lakes and some streets are used by all three (3) districts. Mayor Bisel asked if school district boundaries could be redrawn to eliminate this problem. Senator Dahl noted that there are a number of things that are historical and do not make much sense. He felt there will have to be incentives for school districts to merge and redraw boundaries. Mr. Schumacher noted that there appears to be a move to change the fiscal disparity formula. Senator Dahl said he feels that the current program is a very good program. He noted that there PAGE 2 266