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<br />Item No: 9G <br />Meeting Date: October 27, 2003 <br />Type of Business: Council Business <br />Administrator Review: _____ <br />City of Mounds View Staff Report <br />To: Honorable Mayor and City Council <br />From: Charles Hansen, Finance Director <br />Item Title/Subject: Consideration of Resolution 6127 Establishing a Policy for <br />Deferral of Special Assessments by Senior Citizens or <br />Disabled Persons <br /> <br />Minnesota Statutes Chapter 435.193 provides that a statutory or home rule charter city <br />making a special assessment may in its discretion defer the payment of that assessment for <br />any homestead property owned by a person 65 years of age or older or retired by virtue of a <br />permanent and total disability for whom it would be a hardship to make the payments. Any <br />city electing to defer special assessments shall adopt an ordinance or resolution establishing <br />standards and guidelines for determining the existence of a hardship and for determining the <br />existence of a disability. <br /> <br />The City Code, Section 202.13 also references deferred payment of special assessments by <br />a person age 65 or older and calls for the City Council to adopt a resolution establishing <br />standards and guidelines for determining the existence of a hardship. <br /> <br />The staff wasn’t able to find a resolution in which the City Council established these <br />guidelines in the past. We concluded that it would be best to start fresh with a new <br />resolution and establish the guidelines now. <br /> <br />It is recommended that the guidelines be kept fairly simple and straightforward for ease of <br />administration and understanding by the citizens. <br /> <br />I also recommend that the guidelines provide for deferral for disabled persons, since a failure <br />to do so could be considered discriminatory. <br /> <br />This item was first considered by the City Council at the October 13, 2003. The draft at that <br />meeting had no income or wealth qualifications. It only required that the applicant be age 65 <br />or older or that the applicant have been judged permanently and totally disabled by the <br />Social Security Administration or similar authority. <br /> <br />The City Council instructed me to come back with some qualifications based on income or <br />wealth. Obvious approaches to this task include something based upon the assessed value <br />of the home or something based upon adjusted gross income. <br /> <br />Assessed values are readily available from Ramsey County. The applicant’s home value