2004 June Newsletter - Laserfiche WebLink

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�ti 1 Hugo City Hall • 14669 Fitzgerald Avenue North • Hugo, Minnesota 55038 Hugo Bond Rating City Considers Using Jumps From A3 to Al Tax Abatement The City of Hugo's bond rating was recently The City of Hugo is considering the use of tax upgraded from A3 to Al by Moody's,one of the abatement to help fund the CSAH 8/14 realign- country's major investment services. Having been ment project.Tax abatement is a financing tool rated A3 for five years,Hugo was able to com- that allows cities to use property taxes from a par- pletely skip A2 and move directly to Al due to the ticular geographic area to fund a specific project. strength of its financial condition. "Moody's rec- Hugo Mayor Fran Miron notes,"Use of tax abate- ognized the direction the Council has been moving ment for this project follows the Council's policy and the fiscal responsibility that's been shown and that development is going to pay its own way in felt the ranking was appropriate,"comments Hugo Hugo. This means that taxes collected within this Mayor Fran Miron. developing area will pay for necessary improve- ments because of that development." The City Council increased the City's reserve fund from 35 to 50 percent. Careful planning over the For the CSAH 8/14 project,the City of Hugo past four years in areas such as housing develop- would request that the property.taxes in the ment,water and sewer,new school and economic Everton/Elmcrest Study Area go directly to fund development contributed favorably to Hugo's CSAH 8/14 rather than the usual procedure of first improved rating. "This policy decision, along going to Washington County and then to the City. with the fiscal management that's been demon- "Those within the abatement would still pay prop- strated,are major reasons we achieved the rating erty taxes based on their valuation,but those taxes we did," states Miron. This new rating will save would be dedicated to paying for these improve- the City money by reducing the interest it must ments,"notes Mayor Fran Miron. pay on future bonds and improves the rate for outstanding debts. Miron adds,"This savings in Tax Abatement interest will be passed on to the citizens." Continued on Page 3 Downtown Redevelopment Master Plan Hears Completion +• An open house was held planning and urban design,to •,.- at Hugo City Hall on May assist the City in updating and ' 10,2004 where conceptual finalizing its downtown plan. + designs for the new Downtown ' ` •• Redevelopment Master Plan Landform relied heavily on were presented to approxi- input from the community, mately 80 Hugo residents and including business owners,Citi- ` business people. Work on the zens,Planning Commission, Residents and business people look over the plan began in September 2003 master plan for the new Downtown Hugo. when the Hugo City Council Downtown hired Landform,a consultant for Continued on Page 3