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MOUNDS VIEW City of Mounds View Staff R Item No: 8.C. Meeting Date: September 9, 2019 Type of Business: Council Business City Administrator Review: rt To: Honorable Mayor and City Council From: Mark Beer, Finance Director Item Title/Subject: Resolution 9160 Authorizing Certification of the Preliminary General Fund Budget and Preliminary Property Tax Levy for Fiscal Year 2020 State law requires that the City certify a preliminary General Fund Budget and preliminary property tax levy to Ramsey County by September 30. The City Council reviewed the General Fund budget at the June work session and will review the budget again before final approval in December. The City Council is considering a preliminary base levy increase of up to 4.2% ($227,964). The Charter limits the levy increase to inflation plus 2% or 5% whichever is less unless otherwise excluded (referendums and debt service/capital levies are excluded from the charter limit). (Inflation is 2.2%) Each 1 % levy increase is an additional $54,277. The state has certified Local Government Aid (LGA) for 2020 at $815,674. The Strategic Plan adopted by the City Council calls for less dependence on LGA. LGA is included in the General Fund budget at 90% of the certified amount. ($734,107) The Strategic Plan also calls for reducing dependence on the Levy Reduction Assigned Fund balance by 3-5% per year, past budgets have used $250,000 to balance the budget. For 2020, $246,000 is proposed to be used to meet the goal of the Strategic Plan. Unassigned fund balance was $3,952,927 at December 31, 2018 and represents 50.9% of draft 2020 budgeted expenditures and transfers in. The Assigned Levy Reduction fund balance was $5,337,607 at 12-31-18 and will be approximately $5,167,671 at December 31, 2019. The base General Fund levy would be $4,472,248 and special levies for Fire Debt Service of $171,190, 2004 police personnel referendum of $220,000, 2017 police personnel referendum of $110,000, PERA rate increase special levy of $39,145 for a total General Fund levy of $5,012,583. A debt service levy for the 2017A PW Facility Debt Service is $416,294 a decrease of $2,152 over 2019. A base levy for the Street Improvement fund of $150,000 will be continued for 2020. The EDA has requested a base levy of $100,000, no increase over 2019. The total of all base and special levies proposed is $5,678,877, a 4.63% or $251,201 increase over 2019. Once this amount is set, the levy cannot be increased but can be lowered. The final levy will be adopted on or about December 9, 2019 along with the General Fund budget and all other City funds budgets. The draft General Fund budget for preliminary approval is $7,758,983. This amount is subject to change as the Council gets additional information but should not change significantly before final adoption. Respectfully submitted, Mark Beer, Finance Director The Mounds View Vision A Thriving Desirable Community