Agenda Packets - 2006/01/09 - Laserfiche WebLink

Home Browse Search

Mounds View City Council December 5, 2005 Truth in Taxation Meeting Page 12 has no “financial cushion.” She corrected that the City is not spending the proceeds of the sale 1 and principal at this point. The City is only spending the interest. She stated the City has other 2 accounts budgeted out five to ten years for capital improvement expenditures so the money is 3 available. She stated the “cushions” are built in and the Council does not plan for one year at a 4 time but for five to ten years. Councilmember Thomas suggested that Mr. Meyer meet with 5 Finance Director Beer to discuss those funds. She stated it is a balance between how much is too 6 much to have on hand for the future and how much is too much to keep taxes down. 7 8 Mayor Marty stated the City has a five-year and a ten-year plan. 9 10 Councilmember Gunn stated when the Council goes to the Departments, staff is told to make 11 cuts of 2%, 3%, 5% and that is being done. 12 13 Mr. Meyer stated he works in a business that sells to municipalities like Mounds View. He has 14 found that at the end of the fiscal year if there is money left, it is spent. As a taxpayer, that 15 bothers him. He stated departments do not want their budget to go down from last year and they 16 do not get paid less every year. He stated the bottom line is that they do not lower their budgets 17 and if there is money in the budget, staff will spend it and there is no incentive to compensate for 18 it. 19 20 Mayor Marty stated that may have been the case in the past but since he has been on the Council 21 they have been addressing staff and departments. He stated he does not believe that has been the 22 case in Mounds View for a number of years. 23 24 Councilmember Thomas stated the budget for the Departments is not based on what they had last 25 year and they have to justify their budget line by line. 26 27 Mr. Meyer stated he sees the budget from a different side. 28 29 Councilmember Stigney stated the City will only use the interest money from the Medtronic 30 project this year. He noted if the City used the principal they would have $250,000 each year for 31 the next 20 years excluding interest and he plans to use that money for the purpose of tax levy 32 reduction. 33 34 Mayor Marty asked about the State Auditor’s information indicating Mounds View is ranked 144 35 out of 215 cities for taxes. Finance Director Beer stated those are figures from 2003, which is the 36 most current information available. 37 38 Mayor Marty stated he received several telephone calls about snowplows and will address that 39 issue at the next Council meeting. 40 41 Finance Director Beer asked if the Council would like to keep the public hearing open. 42 43 Mr. McCarty asked the Council to leave the public hearing open so staff can chart the Medtronic 44 information mentioned by Councilmember Stigney on a spreadsheet. 45