1 00:00:06,740 --> 00:00:20,620 Adrian N. Brightfield, City Clerk, you are hereby directed to call a special session of the City Council that we held on Monday, March 25, 2024. At 630 PM, in the historic federal building for the purpose of conducting a public hearing for the proposed fiscal year 2025 tax fate. 2 00:00:21,160 --> 00:00:36,720 Thank you. Good evening and welcome to a special session of the Dubuque City Council for March 25, 2024. As a reminder to our participants, you can provide in-person input, or virtual audio and written input during tonight's public hearing. Input options during the live meeting include, in-person attendance. 3 00:00:36,720 --> 00:00:38,440 and these may approach the podium when the mayor 4 00:00:38,440 --> 00:00:41,540 asked if there's any public input on the public hearing. 5 00:00:42,160 --> 00:00:44,120 Remote attendees can log in to go to meetings 6 00:00:44,120 --> 00:00:46,780 in the login links, phone numbers, and access code 7 00:00:46,780 --> 00:00:49,160 that appear on the broadcast and live stream 8 00:00:49,160 --> 00:00:51,380 and post it on the front page of the meeting agenda. 9 00:00:51,980 --> 00:00:55,320 This option includes audio input and written chat input. 10 00:00:55,760 --> 00:00:57,680 If you are participating via computer, 11 00:00:58,080 --> 00:01:00,500 indicate that you would like to speak in the chat function 12 00:01:00,500 --> 00:01:03,640 or note that you would like to speak during the appropriate time. 13 00:01:04,160 --> 00:01:05,640 If you're participating via phone, 14 00:01:05,640 --> 00:01:08,460 indicate that you would like to speak during the appropriate time. 15 00:01:09,060 --> 00:01:12,900 All comments, whether in-person or virtual, must be accompanied by a name in address. 16 00:01:13,840 --> 00:01:18,540 Additionally, written public input is accepted by contacting the city council directly from the 17 00:01:18,540 --> 00:01:24,880 cities web page at www.cityofdubube.org slash council contacts and through the 18 00:01:24,880 --> 00:01:29,440 city clerk's office email at ctyclurcatcityofdubube.org. 19 00:01:30,520 --> 00:01:32,340 Attendance for the session is as follows. 20 00:01:32,340 --> 00:01:35,940 Mayor Cavendon, council members Farber here, Jones, 21 00:01:36,460 --> 00:01:40,200 Resnick, Russel, here, thank you, 22 00:01:40,400 --> 00:01:43,520 Sprank, Wethel, City Manager Van Nilligan, 23 00:01:44,380 --> 00:01:45,420 here, and City Attorney Brumwell. 24 00:01:45,760 --> 00:01:48,040 Here, thank you, our public hearing tonight 25 00:01:48,040 --> 00:01:50,280 is public hearing for proposed fiscal year, 26 00:01:50,360 --> 00:01:53,640 2025 tax rate and dollars and taxpayer statements. 27 00:01:54,600 --> 00:01:57,780 Adrian, before I actually take motion on that, 28 00:01:57,780 --> 00:02:00,380 I realize sitting here that we, I think, 29 00:02:00,380 --> 00:02:03,120 made a mistake in the previous special session we had. 30 00:02:03,260 --> 00:02:05,900 We actually had an action item that we needed to vote on. 31 00:02:06,100 --> 00:02:08,560 And I think we failed to vote on the action item. 32 00:02:09,000 --> 00:02:13,720 Because we heard a presentation from our city manager. 33 00:02:16,100 --> 00:02:18,800 And I adjourn to the meeting without actually voting 34 00:02:18,800 --> 00:02:20,740 on the action item that was there. 35 00:02:21,960 --> 00:02:24,720 So I'm wondering how we can proceed with that. 36 00:02:24,720 --> 00:02:27,440 And I apologize for the mistake because I did not catch it. 37 00:02:29,290 --> 00:02:30,270 I'm thinking. 38 00:02:57,110 --> 00:03:00,270 Mr. American, I ask you, was it the receive and file of the presentation? 39 00:03:01,810 --> 00:03:01,870 Yeah. 40 00:03:02,750 --> 00:03:06,350 I don't think that's substantive enough that we need to worry about it. 41 00:03:06,410 --> 00:03:08,090 It doesn't require a vote. 42 00:03:10,490 --> 00:03:12,810 Is there consensus, I think, at this point? 43 00:03:12,950 --> 00:03:15,770 So for the, I just want to make sure, since it is a requirement of the state of 44 00:03:15,770 --> 00:03:19,530 I though we have this budget presentation, the budget presentation was had. 45 00:03:19,710 --> 00:03:20,430 We heard it. 46 00:03:20,430 --> 00:03:23,710 We have a meeting that we put in the session and then we adjourned that meeting. 47 00:03:24,330 --> 00:03:27,970 But we did present it as an action item and I'm, it's not required. 48 00:03:27,970 --> 00:03:29,570 No, I don't think that piece is required. 49 00:03:29,710 --> 00:03:32,370 I think that the piece we're doing now is the required piece. 50 00:03:32,390 --> 00:03:35,930 Oh, I see. Okay, so the piece we just did wasn't necessarily a requirement 51 00:03:35,930 --> 00:03:38,470 that was something that we wanted to make sure we presented as a city. 52 00:03:38,670 --> 00:03:42,730 And so we did it for transparency sake, not as a matter of law. 53 00:03:43,250 --> 00:03:46,850 And the legal requirement is that the hearing that we are about to do now 54 00:03:46,850 --> 00:03:49,810 be separate from anything else, which is why we had the two. 55 00:03:50,130 --> 00:03:52,550 So this meeting that Adrian is about to call. 56 00:03:52,550 --> 00:03:56,530 is the important and separate piece that we need to do. 57 00:03:56,890 --> 00:04:00,650 Okay. So I think we're okay. I don't think it damages anything related 58 00:04:00,650 --> 00:04:02,490 to the state-required process. 59 00:04:02,570 --> 00:04:06,590 Right. So we had a separate meeting just previous to this to be able to hear 60 00:04:06,590 --> 00:04:10,610 the budget presentation from the City Manager that basically lays out the whole budget for us 61 00:04:10,610 --> 00:04:13,230 and allows us to hear that and present it. 62 00:04:13,230 --> 00:04:16,450 And then we're going to go through it piece by piece and department by department, essentially 63 00:04:16,450 --> 00:04:20,630 dollar by dollar for the next what is it seven or eight meetings? I don't know. 64 00:04:20,630 --> 00:04:23,750 We're going to have a bunch of meetings about the budget and its entirety. 65 00:04:25,570 --> 00:04:29,450 So with that said, even though we called in a national item on that agenda, we are going 66 00:04:29,450 --> 00:04:32,630 to move forward without necessarily having a vote on that because all we were doing there 67 00:04:32,630 --> 00:04:34,990 was receiving and filing and hearing the presentation. 68 00:04:35,310 --> 00:04:35,590 Correct. 69 00:04:36,270 --> 00:04:36,670 Fair enough. 70 00:04:37,070 --> 00:04:38,270 Everybody clear on that? 71 00:04:38,510 --> 00:04:41,170 Because I caught it as we were as Adrian was calling the role here. 72 00:04:41,910 --> 00:04:42,090 Wonderful. 73 00:04:42,770 --> 00:04:47,730 So with that then, as Adrian just said, we have a public hearing for proposed fiscal year, 74 00:04:47,730 --> 00:04:53,030 25 tax rate and the dollar's taxpayer statements and I will entertain a motion on this please. 75 00:04:54,690 --> 00:05:02,230 Mr. Mayor. Yes, Mr. Farber. I'm moved that we receive and file and approve the proposed fiscal year 2025 tax rate. 76 00:05:03,150 --> 00:05:11,930 We've got a motion by Ms. Farber and a second by Mr. Jones. We will remember to vote on this later after we hear a nice 77 00:05:11,930 --> 00:05:15,010 And for that, I will turn it over to Mike. 78 00:05:16,010 --> 00:05:16,430 Thank you. 79 00:05:16,530 --> 00:05:17,970 City manager Mike Van Milligan. 80 00:05:20,670 --> 00:05:26,550 So what I'm going to do is present information on what is in the budget recommendation 81 00:05:26,550 --> 00:05:32,010 and your course going to vote on the levy is the state of Iowa requires before you actually 82 00:05:32,010 --> 00:05:35,130 do all your deliberations on what's in the budget. 83 00:05:35,550 --> 00:05:38,070 State of Iowa requires you to adopt the levy. 84 00:05:38,070 --> 00:05:43,310 The budget development guidance is based on these five things. 85 00:05:43,870 --> 00:05:48,630 The City Council goals and priorities, major capital improvement projects, 86 00:05:49,670 --> 00:05:54,670 leveraging federal and state grants, public safety and streets. 87 00:05:57,030 --> 00:06:01,010 And at this public hearing, the only option available to the City Council 88 00:06:01,010 --> 00:06:15,550 are to approve the amount of the proposed fiscal year 2025 tax rate, which you established when you set this public hearing, as is, or to decrease it. 89 00:06:15,770 --> 00:06:22,150 At this public hearing, you cannot increase the levy from what you established when you set the public hearing. 90 00:06:23,450 --> 00:06:34,010 The tax rate, which was set for public hearing, is this one, which is about a quarter of 1% change from the current year's property tax rate. 91 00:06:38,830 --> 00:06:47,150 If in April 11th, when you have your final budget public hearing, you also have another opportunity to consider the property tax rate. 92 00:06:47,150 --> 00:06:53,990 Again, at that hearing, you can only decrease it or adopt it as it is, you can't increase it. 93 00:06:54,270 --> 00:07:03,310 If you were to accept the recommendation and on April 11, adopt the current rate that's being proposed, this would be the impact. 94 00:07:04,090 --> 00:07:11,670 There would be the quarter of 1% rate increase that would bring in an additional 6% of property tax revenues. 95 00:07:11,670 --> 00:07:20,610 The average residential property would see about a $40.75 per cent, I'm sorry, $40.75 96 00:07:20,610 --> 00:07:29,630 increase or about 5 per cent. The average commercial would see about a $850 increase or just over 25 per cent. 97 00:07:29,970 --> 00:07:36,750 The average industrial would see about a 3.9 per cent increase or about a $187. 98 00:07:40,100 --> 00:07:50,140 Since 1989, the average homeowner is average in annual increase in cost in the city portion of their property taxes of 1.36% 99 00:07:50,140 --> 00:07:52,890 about $8.41 a year. 100 00:07:53,760 --> 00:08:01,080 If the state had been fully funding the homes that tax credit, which they have been recently, but there were years that they didn't, 101 00:08:01,500 --> 00:08:05,940 the increase would have averaged approximately $5.67 a year. 102 00:08:07,440 --> 00:08:25,460 When you compare our property tax rate with the other 10 cities in Iowa, there's a total of 11 cities in Iowa, the population greater than 50,000, some of them have established their fiscal year 25 rate, like you're being asked to do tonight for Dubuque. 103 00:08:25,460 --> 00:08:36,740 Some of them have not, so, for instance, west of the Moine and Ankeny still, and this comparison shows their FY24 rates, the Moine also does. 104 00:08:38,440 --> 00:08:55,360 But, if you look at how we will compare a water lose rate, which they have already adopted, is 126% higher than the muces rate, and the average of the other 10 cities is 58% higher than the muces proposed. 105 00:08:55,360 --> 00:08:55,700 great. 106 00:08:58,540 --> 00:09:04,300 The state of Iowa did what they terms property tax reform last year and part of that 107 00:09:04,300 --> 00:09:11,260 was that a form need to be filled out that the form being supplied by the state submitted 108 00:09:11,260 --> 00:09:19,240 to the county. This is in every county across the state and the county auditor then mailed that 109 00:09:19,240 --> 00:09:21,540 every home in business in town. 110 00:09:23,300 --> 00:09:25,520 The city of Dubuque does it a little bit different 111 00:09:25,520 --> 00:09:27,440 than the forum demonstrates. 112 00:09:27,720 --> 00:09:30,260 And I'll point that out to you how that works differently 113 00:09:30,820 --> 00:09:32,420 when I show you the forum. 114 00:09:33,660 --> 00:09:36,160 But the city of Dubuque, what we do is we create 115 00:09:36,160 --> 00:09:38,160 an average value for properties. 116 00:09:39,780 --> 00:09:42,040 And that average goes up every year. 117 00:09:42,120 --> 00:09:44,920 Thank goodness, which means people's properties values 118 00:09:44,920 --> 00:09:47,840 are increasing and so our average goes up each year. 119 00:09:47,840 --> 00:09:53,720 The state of Iowa does it differently, they do a fixed $100,000 value. 120 00:09:54,020 --> 00:09:58,060 So I'll show you how that worked out on the form that was mailed to every home and business 121 00:09:58,060 --> 00:10:03,600 in the in the beauty county or in our case for the city in the city of Dubuque. 122 00:10:05,100 --> 00:10:13,340 So since the state of Iowa says a fixed $100,000 value for residential property in the current 123 00:10:13,340 --> 00:10:22,600 year and then a fixed value of $100,000 next year, it shows that this year that fictitious 124 00:10:22,600 --> 00:10:28,800 property would have paid $541 in taxes next year that fictitious property would have 125 00:10:28,800 --> 00:10:43,320 paid $460 in taxes, so they would see a 1514.97, so 15% property tax reduction from the city 126 00:10:43,320 --> 00:10:47,600 What's going to happen since property values do go up each year. 127 00:10:48,080 --> 00:10:53,720 And we do an average of all property values, which Jennifer, I think you said it was about 128 00:10:53,720 --> 00:11:02,100 186,000, 196,000 dollars is the average residential property value in Dubuque. 129 00:11:02,960 --> 00:11:10,080 They're actually going to see a 5% property tax increase if you adopt this levy, not a 15% decrease, 130 00:11:10,080 --> 00:11:16,720 But they just got to notice in the mail because of the state form requirements that said they were going to get a 15% decrease. 131 00:11:17,600 --> 00:11:20,640 Unfortunately, the same thing happens with commercial property. 132 00:11:21,020 --> 00:11:23,380 A fixed $100,000 value. 133 00:11:24,500 --> 00:11:31,840 Both this year and next year, once again, telling commercial properties, you're going to see a 15% decrease in your property taxes. 134 00:11:31,840 --> 00:11:33,080 That's not the case. 135 00:11:33,080 --> 00:11:48,380 I will tell you that the nuance in commercial property is the first $150,000 of a commercial property gets the same rollback as residential property. 136 00:11:49,040 --> 00:11:49,720 What does that mean? 137 00:11:49,720 --> 00:11:59,280 So the state of Iowa only allows this year taxation of about 45% of the value of residential property. 138 00:11:59,320 --> 00:12:00,640 That's called the rollback. 139 00:12:00,880 --> 00:12:04,180 They roll back the value of the real value of the property. 140 00:12:05,680 --> 00:12:15,740 And so for commercial, the first $150,000 of value, they roll back that value down to 45% of the amount. 141 00:12:16,400 --> 00:12:19,000 And that's all that's subject to the property tax levy. 142 00:12:19,000 --> 00:12:38,000 So, in the view count, I'm sorry, in the city of Dubuque, there are 653 properties that fit that commercial properties, that fit that category out of, excuse me, I've got the other number in the email, out of a total of 1,669 properties. 143 00:12:38,000 --> 00:12:49,300 So 653 of the 1,669 commercial properties in the city to view will get the residential 144 00:12:49,300 --> 00:12:56,600 roll back and so they will not get the same rate of increase as general commercial properties 145 00:12:56,600 --> 00:12:57,760 across the city. 146 00:13:00,780 --> 00:13:04,680 So I guess you could say that's a support of small business. 147 00:13:06,660 --> 00:13:11,660 So, as I say in this first bullet, the State of Iowa calculation really shows the impact 148 00:13:11,660 --> 00:13:14,440 on small business and smaller residential properties. 149 00:13:18,410 --> 00:13:25,910 This is just more demonstration of the form that goes to residents, but I just really 150 00:13:25,910 --> 00:13:32,770 explained that and this also once again explains that 541 versus 460. 151 00:13:34,470 --> 00:13:40,670 The mayor and city council are required by state law to have this budget adopted by April 15. 152 00:13:41,490 --> 00:13:42,730 Now, you might say, well, wait a minute. 153 00:13:42,790 --> 00:13:46,690 I thought the law said we have until April 30 to adopt the budget. 154 00:13:47,310 --> 00:13:50,250 And that was a change last year that the state of Iowa made, 155 00:13:50,390 --> 00:13:52,770 said instead of your deadline now being March 31st, 156 00:13:53,850 --> 00:13:55,770 the deadline is April 30th. 157 00:13:55,770 --> 00:13:59,270 In less, you have a debt levy. 158 00:14:00,050 --> 00:14:05,810 I can tell you all the 11 largest cities in the state of Iowa have a debt levy and my guess 159 00:14:05,810 --> 00:14:10,150 is most of the other cities, but I really don't know because I've never looked at it. 160 00:14:10,170 --> 00:14:14,110 And if you have a debt levy, you have to adopt your budget by April 15. 161 00:14:14,410 --> 00:14:18,570 So they actually ended up giving us two weeks instead of a month extension. 162 00:14:22,900 --> 00:14:30,120 The state had, they did property tax reform, oh, now about 10 years ago, and I'm going 163 00:14:30,120 --> 00:14:32,140 to put quotes around the term of reform. 164 00:14:33,640 --> 00:14:39,960 And they lowered the amount of commercial and industrial property, the value of commercial 165 00:14:39,960 --> 00:14:42,700 and industrial property that was subject to property taxes. 166 00:14:43,600 --> 00:14:48,320 And when they did that, they said, okay, now city counties and school districts, you're 167 00:14:48,320 --> 00:14:49,620 not going to lose anything here. 168 00:14:49,620 --> 00:14:59,280 We're going to backfill and send you payments for your loss of revenue every year out of their general fund the state general fund well that lasted 169 00:15:00,000 --> 00:15:17,380 For a while. And then they told us, well, we're going to stop doing that. And over time, over eight years, we're going to incrementally reduce your payment every year until we stop paying you at all. And so that payment this year will be $577,000. 170 00:15:17,380 --> 00:15:27,620 You can see this is a chart that shows the backfill payments, back in 2016, 2017, we were 171 00:15:27,620 --> 00:15:34,680 getting payments of $1.8 million for our lost property tax revenue, and as you can see 172 00:15:34,680 --> 00:15:37,940 in this, now we're going to get $577,000. 173 00:15:38,520 --> 00:15:46,180 So, about $1.2 million of revenue money that we'll never see, and each year that's going to 174 00:15:46,180 --> 00:15:50,740 go down until the last payment of 2020, in 2020, 29. 175 00:15:52,580 --> 00:15:59,540 In addition, when the state back then did what I, they called property tax reform, they 176 00:15:59,540 --> 00:16:06,020 said that they wanted to change the way multi-family residential was taxed, and at that 177 00:16:06,020 --> 00:16:09,820 time, and that's a three-flatter of rental unit, 178 00:16:11,860 --> 00:16:15,080 multi-residential was taxed as commercial property. 179 00:16:15,080 --> 00:16:20,920 So basically, and then it was a hundred percent of their value, the rate was applied against that. 180 00:16:21,600 --> 00:16:30,260 And the state said, what we're going to do is every year, we're going to reduce the amount of the assessed value of multi-residential that's taxed. 181 00:16:30,260 --> 00:16:39,480 Until it reaches the same rollback as residential, which remember residential in 2025 will be only taxed on 45 percent of their value. 182 00:16:39,480 --> 00:16:46,640 Well, that happened this year. It reached that level. So now there is no multi-residential classification. 183 00:16:47,520 --> 00:16:52,840 They're just classified as residential, like anybody, any other single family home. 184 00:16:53,200 --> 00:16:57,740 And they're only going to be taxed on about 45% of their value. 185 00:16:58,580 --> 00:17:08,460 So the city will have lost over that period from FY 17, FY 24, 5.6 million dollars in property tax revenue. 186 00:17:08,460 --> 00:17:11,520 And the annual loss is now permanent. 187 00:17:11,900 --> 00:17:17,840 We will never get any more of that property tax money paid to us. 188 00:17:17,860 --> 00:17:24,760 And it never was backfilled like the commercial and industrial changes were for a while. 189 00:17:24,980 --> 00:17:27,560 That was never backfilled at all. 190 00:17:29,420 --> 00:17:38,860 And then in House File 718 last year created new exemptions and those new exemptions 191 00:17:38,860 --> 00:17:50,280 about 3,400 homeowners filed for those and that reduced the value in FY26 of about 3,250 dollars 192 00:17:50,280 --> 00:17:56,260 of taxable values not subject to the tax FY26 that will be $6,500. 193 00:17:56,260 --> 00:18:03,640 The loss of revenue to the city in FY25 is about $113,000. 194 00:18:04,680 --> 00:18:07,600 The state also increased the military credit 195 00:18:08,220 --> 00:18:10,640 and increased it from $1852. 196 00:18:11,260 --> 00:18:19,000 The $4,000, the $1937 homeowners are going to be eligible for the military exemption 197 00:18:19,640 --> 00:18:24,120 and that's going to be a loss of revenue to the city of $77,000. 198 00:18:25,760 --> 00:18:35,440 The city assessor by state law did a reassessment of property values and the average 199 00:18:35,440 --> 00:18:42,200 residential property value increased 23.2%, the average commercial property value increased 200 00:18:42,200 --> 00:18:43,400 25%. 201 00:18:43,400 --> 00:18:45,560 How does the city assessor do that? 202 00:18:45,860 --> 00:18:52,800 The city assessor looks at actual sales and so that means people's property values actually 203 00:18:53,680 --> 00:18:59,420 increased at that rate. So I would suggest that's really good news for our 204 00:18:59,420 --> 00:19:07,180 property owners because things are functioning in a way that is making it a 205 00:19:07,180 --> 00:19:12,820 good investment for people to buy homes and businesses at a higher price than 206 00:19:12,820 --> 00:19:16,160 they were buying them before because those are actual sales. 207 00:19:19,160 --> 00:19:20,120 And as I said, the 208 00:19:20,120 --> 00:19:27,940 residential rollback, it changed from the current year of 54.6% of the amount of the value 209 00:19:27,940 --> 00:19:31,840 of the home is taxed down to now it's 46.3%. 210 00:19:36,220 --> 00:19:42,200 Now the good news is our lease revenues for the riverfront industrial properties is going 211 00:19:42,980 --> 00:19:43,620 up. 212 00:19:43,940 --> 00:19:51,660 Our local option sales tax revenues are going up and remember how our local option sales tax 213 00:19:51,660 --> 00:19:59,500 revenues are used, 50% goes the property tax relief, 20% goes the maintenance of city buildings, 214 00:19:59,880 --> 00:20:02,160 and 30% goes the street maintenance. 215 00:20:04,970 --> 00:20:08,750 Our hotel melt-tell tax is going up. 216 00:20:09,670 --> 00:20:20,350 And last year, Moody's recognized the good fiscal management of the Marin City Council 217 00:20:20,350 --> 00:20:26,990 by upgrading our bond rating. So, Moody's upgraded the city's outstanding general obligation 218 00:20:26,990 --> 00:20:34,030 bonds from WA3 to WA2, as well as the outstanding sales tax increment revenue bonds 219 00:20:34,030 --> 00:20:41,970 from A2 to A1. And there's the quote from Moody's. Notable credit factors include strong financial 220 00:20:41,970 --> 00:20:47,730 operations and ample revenue raising flexibility, which is resulted in steadily improved 221 00:20:47,730 --> 00:20:50,270 available fund balance and cash. 222 00:20:50,630 --> 00:20:55,810 The city serves as a regional economic center and a regional economic growth rate as outpaced 223 00:20:55,810 --> 00:20:59,570 the nation over the past five years, close quotes. 224 00:21:00,290 --> 00:21:08,210 And the significance of this is this is how when investors decide how much are they going 225 00:21:08,210 --> 00:21:15,030 to be willing to charge as an interest rate to loan the city money, they look at the 226 00:21:15,030 --> 00:21:16,150 moody's bond rating. 227 00:21:16,150 --> 00:21:25,570 So, every investor doesn't come in and examine our books and say, gee, how much should we charge you for an interest rate, how much of a risk are you? 228 00:21:25,810 --> 00:21:27,930 They count on mooties to do that form. 229 00:21:28,450 --> 00:21:35,070 So, the higher your bond rating, the lower the interest rate you pay on debt, because the lower risks to the investor. 230 00:21:39,580 --> 00:21:49,500 There's a statutory debt limit, so the city is only allowed to issue so much debt by state law and that is 231 00:21:49,500 --> 00:21:53,740 can not exceed 5% of the assessed value of the community. 232 00:21:54,540 --> 00:22:02,440 So back in FY 15, the city was at 90% of our statutory debt limit, which means we only had a 233 00:22:02,440 --> 00:22:12,480 the ability to have 10% capacity to issue more debt. And today, in FY 24, we're at 41% of the statutory 234 00:22:12,480 --> 00:22:19,340 debt limit. And in FY 25, if you adopt this budget, we would be at 34% as this chart accurate. 235 00:22:19,340 --> 00:22:23,600 Jennifer, the 41 and the 34 percent. 236 00:22:32,130 --> 00:22:36,790 Okay, but the FY24 FY25R that chart is accurate. 237 00:22:43,220 --> 00:22:45,680 Okay, so this chart probably is outdated. 238 00:22:50,540 --> 00:22:58,530 Okay, all right, if you don't mind looking at your chart to just see what these numbers are what these numbers should be. 239 00:22:58,530 --> 00:23:02,290 All you think it's in the next one, okay, 240 00:23:04,800 --> 00:23:06,740 all right, I think this, this is the one, 241 00:23:17,180 --> 00:23:25,500 this one here, okay, so it's 40% and FY24 and 35% and FY25 and I apologize for that. 242 00:23:26,700 --> 00:23:33,240 But in two power points together for tonight, we might have had some old data that came in. 243 00:23:35,670 --> 00:23:44,890 So, as we try and do, like we do with our property tax levy, we try and compare it to the other 10 cities in the state of Iowa with a population greater than 50,000. 244 00:23:45,470 --> 00:23:52,550 As I mentioned to you in the property tax levy, we have the lowest property tax rate by far of the other cities. 245 00:23:53,790 --> 00:24:04,830 In this case, we look at the utilization of statutory debt limit and for FY-25 and we don't 246 00:24:04,830 --> 00:24:09,490 have the FY-25 numbers yet for all these other cities correct, so these are probably 247 00:24:09,490 --> 00:24:11,150 there FY-24 numbers. 248 00:24:12,670 --> 00:24:20,910 We're at 34.9% of our statutory debt limit if you adopt the budget is recommended and that 249 00:24:20,910 --> 00:24:29,950 put us at the fifth lowest use of our statutory debt limit, and the average would be 21% higher 250 00:24:29,950 --> 00:24:32,430 than our use of the statutory debt limit. 251 00:24:35,130 --> 00:24:38,130 Then on the area of reserves, when you look at 252 00:24:38,130 --> 00:24:51,330 general fund, a cruel reserve in FY24, the current year, we're at 42% and FY25, 34% FY26 and beyond estimated 253 00:24:51,330 --> 00:24:53,830 at 25 and a half percent. 254 00:24:56,240 --> 00:25:01,020 Moody's requires us to also now, this is a new rule, adopt in the 255 00:25:01,020 --> 00:25:05,540 last couple years, then not just look at our general fund reserves, they also want to look at 256 00:25:05,540 --> 00:25:10,580 our enterprise fund reserves, combine with our general fund reserves, and remember the enterprise 257 00:25:10,580 --> 00:25:16,600 funds for the water fund, sanitary sewer fund, storm water fund, refuse collection fund, 258 00:25:16,600 --> 00:25:26,300 and you can see in FY24 we're at 40% of reserves, 25 will be at 35% and we're projected 259 00:25:26,300 --> 00:25:30,040 at 26 and beyond to be just over 30%. 260 00:25:31,890 --> 00:25:38,310 Some significant issues impacting the budget is the Marin City Council just recently approved 261 00:25:38,310 --> 00:25:44,610 a new contract with the Debute Police Protective Association and the cost of that contract 262 00:25:44,610 --> 00:25:53,270 and FY25 was 5% of base wage, and there is our existing collective bargaining agreements in place 263 00:25:53,270 --> 00:25:59,950 that still have one more year on them with our two teamsters units, that's at 3%, we're 264 00:25:59,950 --> 00:26:05,470 currently in negotiations with the Dubuque Professional Firefighters Association and the International 265 00:26:05,470 --> 00:26:07,850 Union of Operating Engineers. 266 00:26:09,110 --> 00:26:15,990 The budget shows non-bargling union employees would also get a 5% pay raise and the cost 267 00:26:15,990 --> 00:26:18,490 to the general fund of this is almost $2 million. 268 00:26:21,410 --> 00:26:25,630 As far as improvement packages, and I'll say a little bit more about that later, but 269 00:26:25,630 --> 00:26:32,030 some of the public safety improvements are recommending an additional fire captain to serve 270 00:26:32,030 --> 00:26:39,590 as a field training officer, and I'm also recommending an additional bureau chief in the 271 00:26:39,590 --> 00:26:40,690 MS division. 272 00:26:44,570 --> 00:26:50,710 They'll be an increase in ambulance revenues projected at $234,000. 273 00:26:53,030 --> 00:27:00,650 And when we get to improvement packages is the way that works is in August when the mayor 274 00:27:00,650 --> 00:27:06,550 and city council does their goal setting. You establish the vision statement, the mission statement, 275 00:27:06,930 --> 00:27:13,090 five year goals, and then you also establish one year priorities. I give all that information 276 00:27:13,090 --> 00:27:18,610 back in August to the department managers and boards and commissions, and I say now I need you to 277 00:27:18,610 --> 00:27:24,510 tell me what resources do you need to accomplish these things. They do that mostly in the form 278 00:27:24,510 --> 00:27:28,890 of improvement packages. Some of them are in the form of capital improvement project requests. 279 00:27:29,770 --> 00:27:36,410 And there were 3.2 million dollars of general fund improvement package requests. And unfortunately, 280 00:27:36,410 --> 00:27:41,770 I'm only able to recommend 899,000 of those be funded. 281 00:27:42,370 --> 00:27:48,270 Most of that is in non-recurring improvement packages because what we did there was we used 282 00:27:48,270 --> 00:27:56,010 DRA distribution dollars to help fund that one-time expense with non-recurring packages. 283 00:27:56,430 --> 00:28:00,230 Most of the recurring improvement packages are not recommended. 284 00:28:01,170 --> 00:28:04,390 I just told you about two in the fire department that are recommended. 285 00:28:06,220 --> 00:28:12,940 We're doing some major capital improvement programs in this budget of $47 million dollars for the 286 00:28:12,940 --> 00:28:17,820 Catfish Creek sewer shed, intercept or sanitary sewer improvements, 287 00:28:19,940 --> 00:28:22,240 $6.2 million dollars for 288 00:28:22,240 --> 00:28:26,540 a high-strength waste project at the Water and Resource Recovery Center that will mostly be 289 00:28:26,540 --> 00:28:36,200 paid by the companies who bring us the high-strength waste, $3 million in improvements to our 290 00:28:36,200 --> 00:28:45,040 $1.1 million for capacity upgrades for BOD in the water and resource recovery center. 291 00:28:47,000 --> 00:28:51,940 And this is just a map that shows you what I told you about the Catfish Creek Sewers 292 00:28:51,940 --> 00:28:52,740 Shed changes. 293 00:28:53,340 --> 00:28:59,050 So the purple there on the right is some new sewer, some replacement sewer, and a new 294 00:28:59,050 --> 00:29:09,050 expanded lift station. The green line is replacement of sewer that is about almost 50 years old. 295 00:29:09,570 --> 00:29:17,030 It was installed with great foresight in the early 80s to serve these new growing areas of the 296 00:29:17,030 --> 00:29:23,170 community. In other words, areas they hoped would grow someday. The problem is they undersized the 297 00:29:23,170 --> 00:29:26,530 and the sewers are 50 years old and so they need replacement. 298 00:29:28,090 --> 00:29:35,210 The line on the left is actually a new sewer that would come off of those sewers 299 00:29:35,210 --> 00:29:37,630 that would serve the southwest arterial corridor. 300 00:29:38,370 --> 00:29:43,570 So now that the southwest arterial is complete, we can start having development on the southwest arterial. 301 00:29:44,050 --> 00:29:49,190 There's $2.6 million in sanitary sewer improvements on Chaplain Schmidt Island 302 00:29:49,190 --> 00:29:54,270 to support the over eighty million dollar project being implemented there by the 303 00:29:54,270 --> 00:29:58,990 to be a grace and association and the fifteen million dollar project that you hear about 304 00:29:58,990 --> 00:29:59,370 minute. 305 00:30:00,000 --> 00:30:06,720 By the city. There's $1.7 million in southwest arterial water main extension. 306 00:30:09,020 --> 00:30:15,580 And this shows that on the right, it shows the purple lines. That's the $1.7 million project. 307 00:30:16,040 --> 00:30:25,640 Stand the water line from basically creek would lane up to the southwest arterial. The projects on the left side of this illustration are not part of this budget recommendation. 308 00:30:26,960 --> 00:30:34,760 The Marin City Council has approved a program to help some of our low-income residents replace 309 00:30:34,760 --> 00:30:40,440 their private lead water service line to $5.7 million program. 310 00:30:41,220 --> 00:30:44,380 We can get a no interest loan from the Iowa Finance Authority. 311 00:30:44,980 --> 00:30:50,460 They're using federal dollars to do that, and not only is it no interest, but 49% of the 312 00:30:50,460 --> 00:30:53,200 loan is forgivable, so we don't have to pay it back. 313 00:30:53,820 --> 00:31:09,780 We also last year had some tests on our water system that showed in our shallow wells that we were had some PFAS that exceeded levels that exceeded the EPA levels. 314 00:31:10,560 --> 00:31:12,820 But in our deep wells they did not. 315 00:31:13,720 --> 00:31:20,760 And so we don't get our water from the river, we get it from deep wells from an aquifer and shallow wells from a different aquifer. 316 00:31:20,760 --> 00:31:28,540 And so this almost $10 million project will dig another deep well, so that the only times we 317 00:31:28,540 --> 00:31:34,540 have to use the shallow wells is in the summer when we have extremely high usage and then 318 00:31:34,540 --> 00:31:40,460 we think we can blend it at a rate that will still keep our PFAS levels under the EPA standards 319 00:31:40,980 --> 00:31:46,320 and we're also looking into doing some other plant improvements related to PFAS. 320 00:31:47,480 --> 00:31:54,080 We'll be in the water department, third pressure zone, which is, we're going to connect 321 00:31:54,080 --> 00:32:00,120 Tanzanite Drive and Olympic Heights with a $2 million project that includes our redundancy. 322 00:32:01,920 --> 00:32:08,020 And the Chaplain Schmidt, Island Sanitary and Suur improvements, I wanted to point out to you 323 00:32:08,020 --> 00:32:15,360 that $2,218,000 that $2.9 million project is going to be from federal dollars. 324 00:32:15,360 --> 00:32:44,300 The Corporal Boulevard Sanitary sewer lift station replacement project, which we're doing to serve the new over 200 unit apartment complexes being built on the old Boeing and beyond site, it replaces a Sanitary sewer lift station that is beyond its useful life and needs to be replaced and also does not have enough capacity to handle the additional development and those are $1.5 million in federal dollars. 325 00:32:46,000 --> 00:33:02,820 This is a map that illustrates those two projects I just mentioned, the map there on the right, the purple with the red circle, is the new lift station and then on the left that's those red lines or the sewer lines and the new lift station that we built on Chaplain Schmidt Island. 326 00:33:02,820 --> 00:33:10,320 The V branch gate and pump replacement project for 28.2 million dollars is in this budget. 327 00:33:10,400 --> 00:33:18,280 We've already received a $7.8 million USEDA grant and we're very optimistic that by August 328 00:33:18,280 --> 00:33:24,040 we will have received an $8 million grant from Homeland Security. 329 00:33:25,120 --> 00:33:32,540 Now in this budget of this $28 million, it shows that we're getting the $7.8 million 330 00:33:32,540 --> 00:33:39,040 and USCDA money, it does not yet show we're getting $8 million from Homeland Security because 331 00:33:39,040 --> 00:33:43,460 that's not a certainty yet, but we think it very soon will become a certainty. 332 00:33:45,120 --> 00:33:50,580 Should that happen, you can revisit the rate recommendations that I'm going to be recommended to you 333 00:33:50,580 --> 00:33:56,480 for stormwater or look at adding projects to the Capital Improvement Program, because there were many 334 00:33:56,480 --> 00:34:03,260 projects that we're not included in the program that staff believes are needed, but we're 335 00:34:03,260 --> 00:34:03,920 not affordable. 336 00:34:05,500 --> 00:34:12,200 In the budget is a construction of the 14-street overpass that is determined on receiving 337 00:34:12,200 --> 00:34:18,380 a $25 million federal raise grant to help fund that. 338 00:34:18,870 --> 00:34:24,500 This is a partnership because it will also, and it not only will give the low-income census 339 00:34:24,500 --> 00:34:28,280 tracks in this area, access to the jobs on 340 00:34:28,280 --> 00:34:31,160 corporate Boulevard, including the industrial park 341 00:34:31,160 --> 00:34:34,140 and the industrial riverfront, but also the jobs on 342 00:34:34,140 --> 00:34:34,860 Schmid Island. 343 00:34:35,560 --> 00:34:36,940 And so, and supported that to the 344 00:34:36,940 --> 00:34:40,000 Bucharest Racing Association helped us 345 00:34:40,000 --> 00:34:43,020 fund our match for the federal planning grant 346 00:34:43,020 --> 00:34:45,420 that we got last year for two and a half million 347 00:34:45,420 --> 00:34:48,020 dollars for the over four million dollars 348 00:34:48,020 --> 00:34:49,840 in planning that we had to do. 349 00:34:50,300 --> 00:34:53,100 And so, the total project is 43 million dollars 350 00:34:53,100 --> 00:35:04,220 and we're optimistic that we'll receive the $25 million construction grant, and that will not only build the overpass, but it will also, as you can see from this map, 351 00:35:05,360 --> 00:35:10,780 the overpass is the green line and the yellow line there in the lower left hand corner. 352 00:35:12,280 --> 00:35:22,180 It will also create a complete street on Elm Street, that's the north south line there on the left side of the page, from five points to the intermodal facility. 353 00:35:23,140 --> 00:35:30,200 It'll create a complete street on 16th street from Elm to Admiral Sheehy Drive, the entrance 354 00:35:30,200 --> 00:35:35,220 to Smith Island, where they'll be around about constructed, and they'll be around about 355 00:35:35,220 --> 00:35:40,220 constructed at 16th and Sikomore Street as you can see in this illustration. 356 00:35:42,240 --> 00:35:47,040 This is an artist rendering of the bridge project over the railroad. 357 00:35:47,040 --> 00:35:54,940 This is an artist rendering of the Elm Street complete street project, you can see the bike lanes integrated into the street plan. 358 00:35:57,300 --> 00:36:05,540 We're also received a $3 million grant from the Iowa Economic Development Authority to build a $15.8 million 359 00:36:06,680 --> 00:36:18,780 ampeth eater on Chapel and Schmidt Island, the Deview Grace and Association is also supporting the debt payments on that project, and that is in the five year CIP. 360 00:36:19,800 --> 00:36:26,160 Now, this is not a city project, but I think it's important enough capital improvement project that it should be mentioned in this presentation. 361 00:36:26,160 --> 00:36:35,140 So this would be a complete reconstruction of the Northwest Arturial in US20 intersection by the Iowa Department of Transportation. 362 00:36:35,960 --> 00:36:38,340 It's a $17.5 million project. 363 00:36:38,940 --> 00:36:45,920 The city would be contributing $5.5 million to the project, mostly through Demats funds, federal Demats funds, 364 00:36:46,980 --> 00:36:54,780 and the Iowa DOT would be providing $12 million, and they would actually be managing and doing the project. 365 00:36:54,780 --> 00:37:03,040 This is the project, it should be approved by the I.D. Commission, it will close the southern 366 00:37:03,040 --> 00:37:07,380 lane of this four-way intersection, so the access to Walmart, that will become a front 367 00:37:07,380 --> 00:37:12,680 of DROAD. It will also close the access to the car dealers on the northwest corner of 368 00:37:12,680 --> 00:37:17,740 the intersection, the L.A. access their dealers through a front of DROAD, the old highway 369 00:37:17,740 --> 00:37:23,800 road, and it will also create for westbound traffic on highway 20 that wants to turn north 370 00:37:23,800 --> 00:37:30,120 on the northwest arterial, they no longer would approach the intersection, they would have an acceleration 371 00:37:30,120 --> 00:37:35,180 lane that they would access long before they got to the intersection and allow them to 372 00:37:35,180 --> 00:37:38,640 accelerate onto the northwest arterial northbound. 373 00:37:40,400 --> 00:37:47,980 $24 million for five flags is in this budget, and then there's also $3 million to replace the 374 00:37:47,980 --> 00:37:53,300 software system for the police department, fire department, 911 emergency communications, 375 00:37:53,300 --> 00:37:58,340 and the Dubuque County Sheriff's Department, and all the volunteer fire departments across 376 00:37:58,340 --> 00:37:59,000 the county. 377 00:37:59,660 --> 00:38:05,360 So, in recognition of that expanded purpose, the Dubuque County would be paying $1.5 million 378 00:38:05,360 --> 00:38:07,420 of the $3 million in cost. 379 00:38:08,620 --> 00:38:13,280 In the capital budget is $8.8 million for the fire department. 380 00:38:13,720 --> 00:38:22,920 It would replace two existing fire engines for one and a half million dollars, 381 00:38:22,920 --> 00:38:33,200 for $340,000, there'd be $467,000 in provenance to the burn tower that we're in in partnership 382 00:38:33,200 --> 00:38:36,720 with the volunteer departments across the county. 383 00:38:37,660 --> 00:38:44,920 It would provide $4.8 million for fire station expansion, in other words, either additional 384 00:38:44,920 --> 00:38:51,440 or replacement fire station that did bump back one year from last year's budget, and it 385 00:38:51,440 --> 00:38:57,380 spend $1.4 million to remodel all the bunk rooms in the existing fire stations. 386 00:38:59,160 --> 00:39:03,800 From the street program would be five miles of asphalt overlays, performed by our public 387 00:39:03,800 --> 00:39:10,240 works department, as I mentioned the 14th street overpass and the roundabouts, the North 388 00:39:10,240 --> 00:39:16,440 West Art, Terial and U.S. 20, Dodge Street Intersection Improvements, and then Central Avenue 389 00:39:16,440 --> 00:39:18,500 court or streetscape improvements. 390 00:39:21,670 --> 00:39:25,290 This recommended budget will support continued investment in people, 391 00:39:25,530 --> 00:39:30,290 businesses and organizations that are making a difference in our community and continued investment 392 00:39:30,290 --> 00:39:36,990 in the infrastructure that must exist for debut continued to thrive. As the council has adopted 393 00:39:36,990 --> 00:39:43,110 and instructed, our goal is to create an equitable community and organization of choice, a high 394 00:39:43,110 --> 00:39:48,050 performance organization and community with engaged employees and residents that is 395 00:39:48,050 --> 00:39:53,170 data-driven and outcome-focused, built on the five pillars of resiliency, sustainability, 396 00:39:54,490 --> 00:40:01,150 equity, transparency, and compassion, and we do that through planning, partnerships, and 397 00:40:01,150 --> 00:40:01,750 people. 398 00:40:02,990 --> 00:40:07,690 There's going to be plenty of opportunities for the public to have input on this budget. 399 00:40:07,690 --> 00:40:14,510 One of them is tonight, this is a public hearing where the public can weigh in on their opinion 400 00:40:14,510 --> 00:40:19,270 on the recommended property tax levy, which the mayor and council needs to adopt the 401 00:40:19,270 --> 00:40:25,670 levy before the end of the night, and then there will be a series of public meetings 402 00:40:25,670 --> 00:40:30,810 the mayor and city council are going to hold, and individual departments will make presentations 403 00:40:30,810 --> 00:40:36,330 to you, and then at each one of these public meetings, Mayor Cavanagh asked if there was any 404 00:40:36,330 --> 00:40:38,730 public input about that department's budget. 405 00:40:39,370 --> 00:40:49,250 Those are going to occur on March 26, March 27, March 28, April 2, April 4, April 8th, and April 9th. 406 00:40:49,250 --> 00:40:55,830 So that's 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 public meetings after tonight's public hearing. 407 00:40:56,690 --> 00:41:01,950 And then there'll be another public hearing on April 11th on the total budget. 408 00:41:01,950 --> 00:41:10,950 And that night you have to adopt a budget and a tax levy because by state law you have to do that by April 15th. 409 00:41:12,110 --> 00:41:21,830 There's plenty of opportunity in person or people can go on the city website and provide you input about the budget recommendation. 410 00:41:22,850 --> 00:41:26,570 And that's the end of my presentation and I'd be happy to answer any questions. 411 00:41:27,210 --> 00:41:28,670 All right, well thank you very much, Mike. 412 00:41:28,670 --> 00:41:36,910 Well, as Mike mentioned, we are in a public hearing to consider the City Council approval of the proposed fiscal year 2025 tax rate, 413 00:41:39,090 --> 00:41:45,370 which the City Manager is recommending a tax rate and dollars, I should say, which the City Manager is recommending approval. 414 00:41:45,810 --> 00:41:49,030 So at this time, we'd welcome any public input if we have any here. 415 00:41:50,920 --> 00:41:55,440 And as you come up, I'll just a couple of reminders, name and address, please. 416 00:41:56,020 --> 00:42:02,800 Also, we'll do five minutes for any public input and just ask that we keep our comments. 417 00:42:03,200 --> 00:42:07,040 Tonight, at least for this public hearing, as focused as we can and as civil as we can. 418 00:42:07,380 --> 00:42:08,260 So thank you very much. 419 00:42:08,520 --> 00:42:08,700 Go ahead. 420 00:42:09,080 --> 00:42:09,480 Thank you. 421 00:42:09,600 --> 00:42:11,520 My name is Clark Sloes. 422 00:42:14,480 --> 00:42:40,100 I just like to start out by thanking the city for letting me speak here and I appreciate the process that you go through because I worked in County Government for 26 years and had to go through the budget process and I kind of liked the way the city does it that one massive public hearing because I'm sure we'd be here for 24 hours straight maybe longer. 423 00:42:40,840 --> 00:42:46,020 You know, where you break it up, break those public hearings up to this specific categories 424 00:42:46,020 --> 00:42:51,860 because my area of interest is infrastructure, public works, now be attending those public 425 00:42:51,860 --> 00:42:52,440 hearings. 426 00:42:54,500 --> 00:43:01,100 The thing that out of the budget that kind of concerns me is that when you see 5% increase 427 00:43:01,100 --> 00:43:09,200 in over non-union employees, the consumer price index from December 22 to December 23 428 00:43:09,200 --> 00:43:17,280 was 3.4%. So if you're getting a raise more than cost of living, what's the reason for 429 00:43:17,280 --> 00:43:22,500 that? You know, you can accept, was there an increase in productivity? If that answer is no, 430 00:43:22,820 --> 00:43:28,240 are you having trouble keeping people because, you know, salaries aren't good enough? What's 431 00:43:28,240 --> 00:43:32,540 the reason for salaries more than the consumer price index? 432 00:43:35,220 --> 00:43:38,100 The other thing that, you know, 433 00:43:38,100 --> 00:43:44,160 The letters I went out for, you know, selling what the property tax only rate was, and 434 00:43:44,160 --> 00:43:51,720 comparing it to $100,000 home, the thing that I sent an email to the city asking, what's 435 00:43:51,720 --> 00:43:53,200 the, let me rate going to be? 436 00:43:53,800 --> 00:43:56,820 And I was just expecting to know a simple whatever it is, $9. 437 00:43:58,080 --> 00:44:04,720 I basically got the entire presentation from the work session and the public hearing. 438 00:44:04,720 --> 00:44:10,540 I like to play with numbers, it's what I did for a living, and I appreciate the information 439 00:44:10,540 --> 00:44:14,660 that was way more than what I expected, and I appreciate that. 440 00:44:15,580 --> 00:44:20,940 But the other thing that concerned me too is the, I don't know if this would be the proper 441 00:44:20,940 --> 00:44:26,600 place to bring this up, is when I saw, you know, the sewer water rate increases the percentages 442 00:44:26,600 --> 00:44:31,340 of those three to four times more than the consumer price index. 443 00:44:31,340 --> 00:44:36,520 This is just a fluke, a one-time, one-year thing, or is this going to be the city's 444 00:44:36,520 --> 00:44:38,000 trend during the next few years? 445 00:44:39,160 --> 00:44:43,680 Because a lot of the girl garden in the summertime, it's going to be now when you start 446 00:44:43,680 --> 00:44:49,500 looking at, am I going to be able to afford to water my garden when it's August, and we're 447 00:44:49,500 --> 00:44:51,220 in a moderate to severe drought. 448 00:44:51,700 --> 00:44:53,160 The answer is going to be no. 449 00:44:54,440 --> 00:44:59,100 So I don't know if this is the time or place during that up, or when we have the public 450 00:44:59,100 --> 00:44:59,680 Thank you. 451 00:45:00,000 --> 00:45:29,040 The hearing for public works to bring that up then. The other thing too is to remind people, you know, when you get your tax bill, you know, look at, look at that tax bill. Because when I bought my house and when it came and looked at it, said the house I had had a full basement. The whole, you've got to make sure and check that, you know, we had maybe half the house had a full, you know, basement under it, rest of it was crawl space. 452 00:45:29,040 --> 00:45:36,240 I'm going so you're basing, you know, your valuation on something that isn't true, so you need 453 00:45:36,240 --> 00:45:40,960 to check that. Also, too, you know, pay attention. There's a difference between your 454 00:45:40,960 --> 00:45:47,020 assessed value and your taxable value. I don't know if people realize that or not. I know 455 00:45:47,020 --> 00:45:53,660 when the telegraph Harold had an article on the letters that went out in the editorial board 456 00:45:53,660 --> 00:45:59,280 made comments and all people want to know how much their taxes are going to go up or down. 457 00:45:59,780 --> 00:46:03,600 Well, with that letter, it was impossible because that levy rate hasn't been adopted yet. 458 00:46:03,640 --> 00:46:10,420 So, how can you tell them what their taxes are going to be until you vote on it? 459 00:46:10,820 --> 00:46:14,360 So, what the paper was asking for was impossible to do. 460 00:46:14,780 --> 00:46:18,660 You can maybe make an educated guess and maybe get relatively close. 461 00:46:20,220 --> 00:46:27,200 But, you know, I think maybe two, the paper needs to instead of, you know, criticize, you know, the state requiring these letters. 462 00:46:27,600 --> 00:46:33,960 It's good that you have one letter that tells you where all these publications, who went, where, how, why? 463 00:46:34,900 --> 00:46:37,760 The basics of journalism on that. 464 00:46:37,760 --> 00:46:39,240 So I appreciate it as that letter. 465 00:46:39,480 --> 00:46:44,640 So I knew, you know, I'm going to attend the school board public hearing for the first time ever. 466 00:46:44,640 --> 00:46:49,840 going to attend the county public hearing for the mute county been at Jackson County's where 467 00:46:49,840 --> 00:46:55,320 I worked there for years and attended those, but you know it's good that the information 468 00:46:55,320 --> 00:47:04,360 is providing those letters whether or not comparing $100,000 home for $24,25, you need to 469 00:47:04,360 --> 00:47:11,700 look at what your own taxable value is and you know maybe it's just me but anybody was past high 470 00:47:11,700 --> 00:47:16,640 will allow you once you know those levy rates but roll back you should be able to calculate 471 00:47:16,640 --> 00:47:22,180 which and you know what your tax credits are. You should be able to calculate what your property 472 00:47:22,180 --> 00:47:30,840 tax is. So easier than doing your income tax. How does I'm concerned on that? So I just want to 473 00:47:30,840 --> 00:47:36,500 you know know that hopefully especially on the water rates that this isn't a trend that's going 474 00:47:36,500 --> 00:47:41,400 continue, or these are going to go up three to four times the rate of inflation. 475 00:47:41,700 --> 00:47:46,860 You just can't afford that, because let's put it this way. 476 00:47:46,880 --> 00:47:52,100 I'm on Medicare, also annual rates for part being premiums, increased over the last 20 477 00:47:52,100 --> 00:48:02,100 years of the rate of over 6%, there are other insurances, you know, like you get your 478 00:48:02,100 --> 00:48:08,600 part D plans that go up by 3 to 4 or 5, 6% depending on which planning you have. 479 00:48:09,140 --> 00:48:12,940 I'm sure a lion energy and black hills energy are going to be asked if we're rating 480 00:48:12,940 --> 00:48:15,840 increases that are above the consumer price index. 481 00:48:16,560 --> 00:48:23,400 So that can only go on for so long before you reach a plant where, how am I going to be able 482 00:48:23,400 --> 00:48:24,240 to afford something? 483 00:48:24,640 --> 00:48:30,820 When I looked at something like that, when it goes up, I equated to okay, you know, that's 484 00:48:30,820 --> 00:48:36,940 I mean, you know, a property tax, that's so many gallons of gasoline, that's going to cost me. 485 00:48:37,740 --> 00:48:44,040 And since I mentioned that since January, when I keep track of, it's the world doing it. 486 00:48:44,200 --> 00:48:52,600 The price of gas went up 14% from the first time I filled up in January to the last Saturday when I filled up the price per gallon. 487 00:48:52,600 --> 00:49:00,000 So, you know, the double digits are, you know, more than 5% increases, just isn't sustainable. 488 00:49:01,500 --> 00:49:02,480 That's all I got. 489 00:49:03,040 --> 00:49:04,720 Thank you very much, Clark, for your comments. 490 00:49:06,120 --> 00:49:08,440 Any other public input this evening here in Chambers? 491 00:49:15,150 --> 00:49:16,030 It's a council staff. 492 00:49:16,510 --> 00:49:18,090 My name is Robert Kenker on Elstreet. 493 00:49:18,990 --> 00:49:20,710 Thank you today for holding this public hearing. 494 00:49:21,150 --> 00:49:23,650 I know a lot of people wanted to come the night, but the game's on. 495 00:49:24,210 --> 00:49:25,630 So, a lot of folks were watching that. 496 00:49:25,630 --> 00:49:29,970 Yeah, well, maybe oxen, I've listened to them pretty soon, certainly, too. 497 00:49:30,230 --> 00:49:31,450 Like I said, thank you again for doing all that. 498 00:49:31,450 --> 00:49:32,210 This is not convenient. 499 00:49:32,350 --> 00:49:32,890 It's a decision. 500 00:49:33,270 --> 00:49:38,590 I've known for the last year or two of the State of Iowa and the Legislatures have 501 00:49:38,590 --> 00:49:43,450 basically given, not given back the money that's supposed to do every city and county and 502 00:49:43,450 --> 00:49:44,350 town in State of Iowa. 503 00:49:44,470 --> 00:49:46,610 They're really named on their promise as what they did. 504 00:49:47,570 --> 00:49:50,870 And I can force you the future year. 505 00:49:51,070 --> 00:49:55,610 Next year, the year after, when they do this flat sales tax, I mean, less money coming 506 00:49:55,610 --> 00:50:02,290 the coffers, less money going back to the season towns, so higher property taxes, higher sales 507 00:50:02,290 --> 00:50:08,490 taxes, might be happening today of Iowa. So I encourage, you know, anybody who really wants 508 00:50:08,490 --> 00:50:13,850 to tackle this problem and cut it off at the past, we need more people in the legislature 509 00:50:14,410 --> 00:50:19,350 have a voice of opinion. So get out in the snowbember, hold your nose if you have to, 510 00:50:19,530 --> 00:50:23,570 vote for somebody else and get more people involved in the state legislature to say, 511 00:50:23,570 --> 00:50:26,250 No, we want a fair and balanced Iowa. 512 00:50:26,730 --> 00:50:29,770 We don't want one side of here and one side of here. 513 00:50:30,030 --> 00:50:31,610 There's gotta be a compromise to help out 514 00:50:31,610 --> 00:50:34,290 because a lot of cities and cities are gonna go wonder, 515 00:50:34,550 --> 00:50:35,950 or cities and towns are gonna go wonder, 516 00:50:36,450 --> 00:50:38,610 or have the highest property tax rate you've ever seen 517 00:50:38,610 --> 00:50:39,650 like Illinois does. 518 00:50:40,610 --> 00:50:42,850 So I want to thank you for keeping a low-visual year, 519 00:50:42,990 --> 00:50:45,150 but I foresee the next few years 520 00:50:45,150 --> 00:50:46,990 if things go away, I think they're gonna go 521 00:50:46,990 --> 00:50:48,790 and people looking out and voice their opinions 522 00:50:48,790 --> 00:50:50,090 to the governor and the staff. 523 00:50:50,350 --> 00:50:52,930 We have a lot of higher property taxes and sales tax. 524 00:50:52,930 --> 00:50:57,690 So thank you all for doing a good job. I appreciate it. Thank you, Robin, for your comments 525 00:50:58,410 --> 00:51:02,390 All right, I don't see anybody else here. Do we have any virtual comments this evening? 526 00:51:02,550 --> 00:51:06,630 We do not all right. Thank you anything for sitting there. No no written in, but all right 527 00:51:06,630 --> 00:51:11,350 Well, you appreciate the public input hoping to hear a lot more as we go through this process here 528 00:51:11,350 --> 00:51:15,070 But for tonight we'll just bring it back to table four questions and discussion 529 00:51:20,730 --> 00:51:21,750 Who's with? 530 00:51:22,510 --> 00:51:28,170 I had a question related to our first hearing actually. I just wanted to go back and ask 531 00:51:29,330 --> 00:51:39,170 For the $47 million Catfish Creek Suicide Interceptor Sanitary Suir Improvements that are 532 00:51:39,170 --> 00:51:47,190 slated, can you share a potential timeline for what the community can expect on how long 533 00:51:47,190 --> 00:51:48,530 that will take. 534 00:51:48,810 --> 00:51:53,010 I assume it is a pretty big project, so. 535 00:51:53,550 --> 00:51:54,950 Yes, it is. 536 00:51:54,950 --> 00:51:56,310 I'm sorry. 537 00:51:56,310 --> 00:51:56,450 I'm sorry. 538 00:51:56,570 --> 00:51:58,130 Can I intervene for a minute? 539 00:51:59,150 --> 00:52:05,390 Per the state code, I think we're supposed to limit this to just the public input tonight. 540 00:52:05,410 --> 00:52:11,010 This is supposed to be the separate meeting specifically on the action before the council. 541 00:52:11,610 --> 00:52:16,350 And I think the discussion is better left to the individual department and project. 542 00:52:16,850 --> 00:52:17,550 Oh, thank you so. 543 00:52:18,490 --> 00:52:24,210 Because this is supposed to be a separate meeting just for the public input and the public 544 00:52:24,210 --> 00:52:27,610 and put pieces related to moving the process forward. 545 00:52:28,310 --> 00:52:30,650 And we keep on learning about new processes, don't we? 546 00:52:31,110 --> 00:52:35,590 Well, so real quick, then, Craneth, as far as discussion then goes 547 00:52:35,590 --> 00:52:42,950 from us as a council, you have suggestions for us on how what we could discuss tonight. 548 00:52:43,110 --> 00:52:44,370 I mean, can we discuss public input? 549 00:52:44,550 --> 00:52:49,470 We received, can we discuss the rate itself? 550 00:52:49,570 --> 00:52:52,610 I mean, we did have discussion during the setting of this public hearing. 551 00:52:53,010 --> 00:52:54,830 So, just curious what your thoughts are. 552 00:52:55,710 --> 00:52:57,290 So, I want to look something up quick. 553 00:52:57,710 --> 00:53:00,690 Sure. And in the meantime, then I apologize, as well. 554 00:53:01,430 --> 00:53:05,210 I cut you off in the last meeting, and I apologize for not letting you have any feedback there. 555 00:53:05,270 --> 00:53:08,590 And I think Mr. Resenic, you may have been ready to say some things to so I apologize for that. 556 00:53:12,530 --> 00:53:20,050 So, the House File 718, which was the law that changed all of the process and added this separate bit. 557 00:53:20,050 --> 00:53:30,570 So this hearing had to be separate from any other meeting of the city or county, including any meeting or public hearing related to budget or other business. 558 00:53:35,640 --> 00:53:46,700 So information not related to the proposed property tax amounts and information in the budget statements may not be conducted at the meeting at which the public hearing is held. 559 00:53:50,400 --> 00:54:01,760 So based on that, I think the cautious action would be not to have any discussion, but to 560 00:54:02,560 --> 00:54:09,080 follow the suggested disposition and then have the discussion of all of the pieces related 561 00:54:09,080 --> 00:54:13,800 to the budget on the night that the specific departments present the information. 562 00:54:15,760 --> 00:54:18,900 I think that's consistent with the 718 language. 563 00:54:19,800 --> 00:54:19,820 Okay. 564 00:54:21,580 --> 00:54:30,820 Well then, I'm going to let my face do the talking on this one and say that just a reminder 565 00:54:30,820 --> 00:54:35,340 or we have, you know, on the screens here in Chambers, we have a lot of dates coming up. 566 00:54:35,440 --> 00:54:36,460 So I'm going to repeat them. 567 00:54:36,780 --> 00:54:42,100 March 26, which is tomorrow, March 27, which is Wednesday, March 28, which is Thursday 568 00:54:42,100 --> 00:54:47,600 And the next week April 2nd, April 4th and the following week April 8th and April 9th, 569 00:54:47,840 --> 00:54:51,820 we will be talking about every single one of the departments in every, like I mentioned, 570 00:54:51,960 --> 00:54:56,940 every dollar that will be spent in the city of Dubuque's budget, and we will have discussion 571 00:54:56,940 --> 00:55:04,600 on those nights. Welcome, more public input, welcome, more questions from Council, welcome, more 572 00:55:04,600 --> 00:55:11,140 discussion at this table, and then also with staff. And then please do provide input as public members, 573 00:55:12,680 --> 00:55:18,460 There's a budget comment form and also you can contact the city council anytime through email or phone and any way you like. 574 00:55:20,220 --> 00:55:25,260 And Mr. Shard, since you're the only one sitting here, I'll apologize to you that we were not able to directly answer any of your questions this evening. 575 00:55:25,840 --> 00:55:28,160 Look forward to getting the opportunity to answer those later. 576 00:55:29,160 --> 00:55:34,560 So with that said then, we'll just go ahead and have a nice short night and call it a night. 577 00:55:34,920 --> 00:55:40,140 And I ask Adrian to call the roll here please and then we'll have a vote for the information please Mr. Mayor. 578 00:55:40,140 --> 00:55:47,760 I guess I need it further explained to me that we're supposed to approve something without 579 00:55:47,760 --> 00:55:56,640 actually asking about it so that we can be clear and so the motion is to receive file and 580 00:55:56,640 --> 00:55:57,180 approve. 581 00:55:57,840 --> 00:56:04,440 Now this is not the first time we've gotten the information, but we've considered things 582 00:56:04,440 --> 00:56:10,540 and I suppose I could vote without asking these clarifying questions. 583 00:56:11,080 --> 00:56:19,640 But the process, the legal process, includes approving guidelines without scrutiny? 584 00:56:25,180 --> 00:56:31,700 And I would comment Mr. Reznik that the discussion that we were able to have at the public 585 00:56:31,700 --> 00:56:34,960 hearing, or the setting of this public hearing was the discussion around where to set 586 00:56:34,960 --> 00:56:39,360 rate at its maximum level, which is where we have it currently. 587 00:56:39,840 --> 00:56:46,200 So we cannot by law raise the rate, the property tax rate, any further than it is tonight. 588 00:56:46,760 --> 00:56:53,540 We can, however, by law, decrease it before on April 11th. 589 00:56:53,720 --> 00:56:54,380 We can't do that. 590 00:56:54,460 --> 00:56:55,140 Is that accurate? 591 00:56:55,560 --> 00:56:55,960 Correct. 592 00:56:57,360 --> 00:57:04,480 So what we will be voting on right now will be the maximum rate, knowing that we have an opportunity 593 00:57:04,480 --> 00:57:09,180 to lower it, but we don't have any legal ability even tonight to raise it. 594 00:57:13,300 --> 00:57:15,420 And feel free to, if there's, if there's more clarification. 595 00:57:15,720 --> 00:57:17,720 Well, just incredulity. 596 00:57:18,040 --> 00:57:18,600 That's all I have. 597 00:57:18,920 --> 00:57:20,280 So your face is also speaking. 598 00:57:21,120 --> 00:57:21,480 Yes. 599 00:57:21,900 --> 00:57:22,120 Fair enough. 600 00:57:22,120 --> 00:57:22,680 One of those. 601 00:57:23,740 --> 00:57:25,560 So, and that's entirely accurate. 602 00:57:25,940 --> 00:57:31,340 And we are to vote without any clarification. 603 00:57:32,100 --> 00:57:37,140 So, I think the best way I can describe it is that we're all muddling through this new 604 00:57:37,140 --> 00:57:59,680 process, and continue to hope that there's some additional guidance or clarity provided because as you know, it became just joined it a few years ago and it kind of continues to be just joined it in the code requirements and the process that has been laid out for us. 605 00:58:00,100 --> 00:58:01,660 Thank you very much. Thank you Mr. Mayor. 606 00:58:01,660 --> 00:58:06,440 So I would encourage all of us to make sure we have anything tonight that we need to ask 607 00:58:06,440 --> 00:58:10,980 write it down and we'll be back tomorrow night to begin the process at least. 608 00:58:11,440 --> 00:58:11,480 Okay. 609 00:58:12,040 --> 00:58:14,700 Any further clarification before I call for the vote? 610 00:58:15,000 --> 00:58:15,120 All right. 611 00:58:15,180 --> 00:58:22,200 Motion before I see it is to receive and file, approve the proposed tax rate and dollars for fiscal 612 00:58:22,200 --> 00:58:22,960 year 25. 613 00:58:23,300 --> 00:58:24,320 So, Adrian, what's the call the roll please? 614 00:58:24,660 --> 00:58:25,700 Through cell. 615 00:58:26,900 --> 00:58:26,940 Hi. 616 00:58:27,640 --> 00:58:28,080 Farber. 617 00:58:28,260 --> 00:58:28,480 Hi. 618 00:58:28,920 --> 00:58:29,200 Cavadon. 619 00:58:29,360 --> 00:58:29,560 Hi. 620 00:58:29,860 --> 00:58:30,200 Jones. 621 00:58:33,280 --> 00:58:35,820 That motion passes 7-0. 622 00:58:37,180 --> 00:58:43,000 With that we have no further items on this agenda this evening, so we'll see everyone here tomorrow night and we are adjourned.