01/27/2003 Council Minutes - Laserfiche WebLink

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COUNCIL MINUTES JANUARY 27, 2003 APPROVED 1 City Attorney Hawkins stated his recommendation would be to go forward with business as usual. • 2 He stated the Council cannot stop conducting business based on what might happen. 3 4 Senator Reiter stated she does not know how to advise the Council at this time, as she does not know 5 what will happen. 6 7 Councilmember Carlson indicated that in Toni Coleman's column recently she interviewed 8 Lieutenant Governor Molnau, who talked about legislation she hopes to be involved with to help 9 speed up projects for Mn/DOT. She stated the article didn't go into detail and asked if the Senator 10 could provide any more information on this subject. 11 12 Senator Reiter stated it is still the plan to use bonds for several major projects. She indicated she has 13 authored or co-authored many projects herself and knows Mn/DOT is looking at several different 14 areas, including bridge projects both in the Lino Lakes area and in Anoka. She stated the projects are 15 still going forward, indicating the County has to participate in the bridge projects. She commented 16 that she still presumes funds could come from tobacco money. 17 18 Councilmember Carlson asked if Mn/DOT would be looking for local participation. Senator Reiter 19 stated that where the State can get help locally to further a project they do. She stated that in 20 Shoreview they participate in many of the projects. She indicated she is meeting with two people 21 from the governor's office to discuss, and if she can suggest that Lino Lakes would be interested in 22 participating in some local projects she will do that. 23 S 24 Councilmember Carlson stated this is a tough situation to have come before them and not really know 25 where it is going. Senator Reiter stated her party feels strongly that they have to look at everything, 26 because it may be part of what they have to do in the end. She indicated they would look at 27 everything else to see if raises and salaries can be accommodated. 28 29 Mayor Bergeson stated the aid Lino Lakes receives from the State is $157,000. He asked if that 30 would be frozen or eliminated. Senator Reiter stated some Legislators would love to do away with it 31 completely. She stated that there is not a hard formula to determine how much each city receives. 32 She had asked for the formula in 2001 and again in 2002 and it does not exist. She indicated some 33 people feel the process is unfair, and there are groups in favor of the current way of determining the 34 amount, and others against it. She indicated that in the Sunday paper there was a review about 35 Austin, showing Austin receives 78% of their budget from the State. She commented that this 36 amount allows them to do things other cities cannot. She stated that the amount Lino Lakes receives 37 is probably less than 1 percent of their budget. She believes something will happen with this 38 disparity. 39 40 Mayor Bergeson asked the Finance Director to comment on what portion of their budget was State 41 aid. Finance Director Rolek indicated it was about 2 percent. 42 43 Mayor Bergeson indicated that one of the issues with their participation in the transportation projects 44 was that Lino Lakes is a charter city. This means they have significant limitations on what funds can 45 be spent on road projects and improvements, and may be limited in participating. Senator Reiter 46 indicated that her understanding of Mn/DOT is that they are not looking for funds from each city for • 47 their projects, only if a city wants to do more than the scope of Mn/DOT's project to be completed at 3