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City Council Regular Meeting Minutes 04 December 8, 2003 Page 4 1 residents were paying property taxes along with fee charges. He noted the report indicated many 2 of the calls came from the St. Anthony Nursing Home,whose property taxes had decreased. He 3 added it might be appropriate to charge a fee after a certain number of calls. 4 5 Mr. Cavanaugh indicated another area of concern was mutual aid calls,which were made by 6 another community that did not have all of the necessary equipment to handle a call. He noted 7 St. Anthony Village was a resource to the larger community because of its large fire department. 8 He suggested a fee be charged for these calls, as some of these communities would be willing to 9 pay the fee. 10 11 Mr. Cavanaugh stated it was hard for residents to know"what the benchmark is." He suggested 12 the option of approaching the Legislature collectively, which would hopefully empower 13 residents to make changes in property taxes. He indicated the development of certain measures 14 of productivity might be another option. 15 16 Mr. Cavanaugh noted his final thought related to the fire station. He stated he should be happy 17 the fire station left his neighborhood, as he had benefited and the change was dramatic. He 18 indicated he did not think the City appreciated what it was doing by locating the station in a 19 residential area and added the houses in the surrounding were being sold for a reason. He also 20 questioned the architecture of the building, as, in his opinion, the fire station would look better 21 than the community center. He noted the main responsibility of the Fire Department appeared to 22 be responding to medical calls and asked if the architecture and landscaping were needed to 23 handle medical calls. He suggested the Fire Department's current temporary location be 24 considered, as it seemed to be working. He added the opportunity should be taken to combine 25 police and fire at that location, which would make available needed community center space. He 26 suggested services would still remain at a high level if this action were taken. 27 28 Hugh Gallagher, 3112 Hilldale Avenue NE, stated he had been a St. Anthony resident for 31 29 years. He indicated the St. Anthony portion of his taxes went up 30% and 60% was due to the 30 fire station and public works building. He asked what the additional 40%included, as it 31 appeared the budget did not increase from the past year to the current year. Mr. Mornson 32 responded the other main increase was the additional $160,000 levied,which was 60% of the 33 State aid cut. He explained there were three components to the levy increase: the public works 34 building and fire station, an equipment certificate issued for a fire truck and the $160,000 levied 35 for the general fund. 36 37 Mr. Gallagher asked if copies of the budget presentation were available to residents. Mr. 38 Mornson replied they were. 39 40 Councilmember Faust explained the State had given the City$267,000, which would reduce the 41 amount needed from the taxpayers;however,that amount had been taken away. He noted the 42 State allowed the City to levy 60% of that amount, which equaled$160,000, and that was called 43 property tax reform. He added the property taxes of residents increased because of the lost 44 $267,000, even though the City's overall budget was reduced. 45