The preliminary 2010 levy has been set. As I indicated in my last post the council chose to REDUCE TAXES!!!
Our current levy for 2009 is $9,519,086. Our levy for 2010 will be $8,585,678 or less. This is a decrease of $933,408 or 9.8% from last year.
I cannot begin to tell everyone the amount of work that our city staff and the council have put into this reality. I commend our staff and my fellow council members for having the courage to make the tough decisions.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Fiscal questions-
ReplyDelete[1]Does that include HRA and EDA, so that overall taxing is reduced, or is it only the City budget and levy worked downward w/o regard to the "authorities" and their impacts?
[2]What about capital spending? It can get out of hand quickly, with debt service lasting years. The water tower? The train stop [if built]? A community center [if built]?
[3]Is the road tarring schedule being compromised in order to show this change?
An unrelated question-
Will work session broadcasting ever be resumed, or at least what's your view on that possibility?
I have posted the previous comment, I will answer the questions later today when I have time.
ReplyDeleteFiscal questions-
ReplyDelete[1]Does that include HRA and EDA, so that overall taxing is reduced, or is it only the City budget and levy worked downward w/o regard to the "authorities" and their impacts? ANSWER is, The EDA levy is included in the general fund levy and is the same amount as previous years. The HRA is a separate levy and is the same amount as last year.
[2]What about capital spending? It can get out of hand quickly, with debt service lasting years. The water tower? ANSWER is, the water tower is fund out of the water utility fund which has more than enough cash to pay for it. The water utility fund has been built up over the years in planning for this water tower and is funded by the citizens that use city water. The train stop [if built]? A community center [if built]? ANSWER is, the train stop funding is still a mystery. Must likely there will be multiple sources of funding, city, county, state and federal. There is no active talk of a community center.
[3]Is the road tarring schedule being compromised in order to show this change? ANSWER is, no. There has never been enough money for this but the funding should stay the same. Everyone must remember that we have not adopted the 2010 budget and will not until later this year. We have a rough draft plan that was used to calculate the levy needed.
An unrelated question-
Will work session broadcasting ever be resumed, or at least what's your view on that possibility?
ANSWER is, I would not be opposed to broadcasting the work sessions. In fact I would not care if we televised everything.
The problems are:
1. Having QCTV technicians available to run the equipment.
2. It is impractical to have work sessions in the council chambers and there is no equipment anywhere else. We may be able to equip the Alexander Ramsey room in the future for this but we still need the technician to run the equipment.
Thanks for the questions and I hope the answers are satisfactory.
CORRECTION! I was mistaken in the reply about the HRA levy. The HRA did vote to raise the levy in excess of $100,000.
ReplyDeleteI was obviously at the meeting and for some reason I thought we voted to keep it the same. I now recall that I voted against raising it but wasin the minority.
I stand corrected!
We had many of our work sessions in the fire station council chambers – it worked for us. QCTV was always was willing to staff for our needs when I was a QCTV Director. At least you’d have one job created to point to if they need to hire someone. A better informed public is worth it.
ReplyDeleteI would think Ramsey has money in the QCTV reserves. They are paying off their new building years early. Terry O’Connell has always been easy to work with. I think they will find a way to provide coverage – if asked.
Terry Hendriksen
All of the equipment was moved from the fire station when everything was moved to the new city hall.
ReplyDeleteThe only place set up with equipment to televise anything is the council chambers.
As I said before I am not totally opposed to televising everything. I do think it is impractical at this point and waste of money. Our work sessions most of the time are several hours long. I do plan to ask the new council in January to start audio recording the work sessions and post them on the website. It will be up to the majority and I will be voting yes.
I missed your comment about creating a job. Are you suggesting we create city government jobs or was that a jab insinuating we have not created jobs in Ramsey? I will presume the latter.
ReplyDeleteIt is not the Governments job to create jobs! It is the Governments job to provide infrastructure and an environment for private industry to create jobs. Our city has done that and is doing it now. Allina, VA., Acapulco (go ahead, minimize those people employed at Acapulco not collecting benefits from the Government, tell them their job is not worthy), all the jobs created to build buildings and build-outs of spaces.
I am not one to brag or stand up and claim every success, but I will not stand by and let someone influence public opinion with half truths and lies. None of these jobs would have been created without the city creating an environment for private industry to grow.