Agenda Packets - 2015/09/08 - Laserfiche WebLink

Home Browse Search

Item No. 6. Meeting Date: September 8, 2015 Type of Business: Work Session City Administrator Review: ______ City of Mounds View Staff Report To: Honorable Mayor and City Council From: Mark Beer, Finance Director Item Title/Subject: 2016 Draft General Fund Budget and Property Tax Levy The July review of the draft budget had a preliminary imbalance of $351,476 after considering the planned draw down of $250,000 from assigned fund balance, an imbalance of $101,476 remained. The Council is considering a General fund levy increase. The City charter would cap the levy increase at 1%. (Inflation is -1%) This would add $43,503 in new revenue. There will be additional changes by the time the final budget is adopted in December as there are still some items that we have not received final information on. The EDA transfer was increased to accommodate the Council proposed changes to the EDA fund. The imbalance after including a 1% levy increase is $58,205. The Council has several options to reduce or eliminate this imbalance. One option is to reduce some of the transfers to other funds such as the Special Projects or the Vehicle and equipment fund. Another option is to defer or eliminate some spending items. The street projects incur a significant amount of staff time and we could shift some of those costs to the street projects. Council could also increase fees to help offset the imbalance. The state has concluded the current legislative session with Local Government Aid (LGA) proposed to increase from $655,531 to $666,792. 90% of LGA was included in the 2016 budget. Preliminary valuation information from Ramsey County indicates that residential values will increase 3.5% on average. Commercial/Industrial (C/I) values will increase 1.9% and apartments will increase by 8.6%. These are average increases, individual properties may experience greater or lesser changes. Because of the uneven change in values there will be a shift in taxes to residential and apartment properties from C/I. The shift will not be as dramatic as in 2015 and more towards apartments then residential. The City needs to certify a preliminary levy and General Fund budget to the County by September 30th. Once set the levy can go down but not up. The City will hold a truth in taxation meeting on Monday, December 7st, 2015 at 6pm with a continuation meeting on Monday, December 14th, 2015 at 7pm if needed. Final levy and budget approval may occur at the December 14th meeting. Conclusion Staff is looking for any additional direction from the Council on how they would like to proceed. Respectfully Submitted, Mark Beer, Finance Director