[0:07] um all right we do have a presentation for

[0:11] for this as well we can we can go through the presentation fairly quickly

[0:16] and bryce is bringing up the first few slides so i'll introduce this at least

[0:21] we know that we've uh presented this to you

[0:26] actually so adopted the preliminary budget back in

[0:30] in september and then we've had some discussions about this since that time

[0:35] but for tonight we have conducting the public hearing and the

[0:39] proposed budget to the public

[0:43] and the purpose is not to address the market values but that uh

[0:47] residents we had a few calls on that brenda has dealt with those on a

[0:50] one-on-one basis so we would receive any public comment and

[0:54] it appears that we may have scared them away at this point and then we have the

[0:59] 2021 tax levy collectible in 2022 and then

[1:03] approving the 2022 budget as well as the 22

[1:07] salary and wage schedule the next slide the budget process is uh

[1:13] got a very small font in in these boxes here but january is our new fiscal years

[1:18] you know april through may city council would workshop on the budget and levy

[1:21] goals if we're um looking at for for the following year

[1:26] and then staff submits our capital improvement plan requests by the end of

[1:30] may so that budget process begins in that first quarter

[1:34] um or the first quarter begin the second quarter june july and august is when we

[1:38] prepare and uh brenda primarily prepares the preliminary budget and levy uh for

[1:44] consideration we workshop that um sometimes

[1:47] in august and then the city council is looking at approving that preliminary

[1:53] levy by the end of september um

[1:56] the adopted levy then which in this case it was a five percent adopted levy um we

[2:02] look at all of the additional additional elements in that fourth quarter council

[2:06] workshop on the capital improvement plan adoption of the capital improvement plan

[2:11] preliminary tax statements are mailed out and then the budget hearing and

[2:14] adoption of the budget levy which is what we're doing right this evening

[2:20] budget outcomes of course our balanced budget and to continue to maintain city

[2:25] services um

[2:27] we do have an increase of seasonal staff wages of two dollars per

[2:32] hour we did in the proposed 2022 budget we

[2:36] have a 0.3 fte additional hours for one of our positions

[2:41] and uh additional three months are included in the budget

[2:45] as you remember we deferred the

[2:48] hiring of the code enforcement rental housing coordinator until uh the second

[2:52] quarter of 2021 so that is now a full year fte position or it's a part-time

[2:58] position but it's budgeted for a full year

[3:02] and the last slide here

[3:05] um we have some other

[3:08] significant purchases coming up obviously the ladder truck which we

[3:10] talked about certainly 140 000 will be a nice little

[3:14] assistance to that uh fund for for that ladder truck um

[3:19] 2022 street improvements on yorkton ridge wood woodland maple lane and ryan

[3:23] drive still still to see the woodland avenue

[3:26] and the ryan drive public hearings for that

[3:29] rondo park improvements with the arca funds coming up and

[3:34] one additional element on your agenda later tonight

[3:36] facility assessment improvements park improvements and

[3:41] again no debt levy is proposed for 202.

[3:47] with that oh we do have the strategic plan items here too these are something

[3:50] that we just wanted to to make a few notes i won't

[3:54] read through all of these items but the four key criteria in the strategic plan

[3:59] enhancing and empowering the community creating operational efficiency

[4:03] maximizing our assets to catalyze development and mandating action and

[4:06] accountability each of those have several elements or one or more elements

[4:11] that are included in the 2022 budget that apply to those items

[4:17] so with that i will

[4:20] move it on to brenda to go through the specifics of the budgetary

[4:28] that council approved in september we sent that levy over to ramsey county

[4:33] and they sent out 2022 proposed property tax bills

[4:39] to the taxpayers here in little canada

[4:43] and based on that tax bill what we'll be talking about tonight is for every

[4:47] dollar that is on that proposed property tax bill uh 21 cents comes back here to

[4:53] the city uh 28 cents goes to the school district

[4:56] 43 cents to the county um eight cents goes to other taxing jurisdictions

[5:01] that's primarily the watershed but what we'll be discussing tonight

[5:06] is that 21 cents that comes back to the city

[5:12] here is our showing our certified levee for 2021 we

[5:16] were at three million five hundred eighty two thousand three hundred thirty

[5:21] dollars based on our preliminary levy which is

[5:24] also option one tonight uh we would have an increase of five percent to that levy

[5:30] or 179 thousand eighty dollars and then we also do have option two uh

[5:36] to consider uh that's a four point five percent uh increase in the levy or 161

[5:41] thousand one hundred and fifty dollars um and then just to uh note that our

[5:46] property tax levy uh the primary uh source of the property tax levy is for

[5:52] the general fund that's our chief operating budget

[5:55] but then we do have a portion that goes to our fire equipment fund that helps

[5:59] fund our fire equipment purchases and then we have 122 200

[6:05] that goes to our infrastructure fund that funds our street projects each year

[6:11] uh the reasons uh for those levy increases of either five percent or four

[6:16] point five are listed here we have our salary and

[6:20] health insurance increases for our employees

[6:24] it is accounting for 1.55 percent of that levy increase

[6:29] and then we have some market salary adjustments that

[6:32] haven't been identified the positions but we are going through a position

[6:38] and classif or a position and compensation study here at

[6:44] the city and that study will be completed and

[6:48] presented to council in january february so we have just over one percent of our

[6:54] levy increase is for possible adjustments

[6:58] based on that study our police services contract um it is uh

[7:05] 0.74 percent of the levy increase uh just important to note that uh with the

[7:10] preliminary levy that was going to be 1.8 percent of the levy increase

[7:15] based on our preliminary contract with ramsey county sheriff's department

[7:20] although but because of a change in the

[7:25] allocation of the funding with the seven contract cities

[7:29] that is now at point seven four percent of the levy increase

[7:34] we have a public works reallocation uh the public works had a restructuring

[7:39] earlier in this year and when we looked at

[7:42] what the public works staff was doing they were

[7:47] being coded they were cutting their time sheets

[7:50] to more water and sewer activities but in reality they were

[7:54] doing more street maintenance and so we're recommending to move those over to

[7:57] the general fund for those street maintenance activities

[8:00] and so that's a half a percent the levy increase

[8:04] and then the fire services contract and it's 0.49 percent of levy increase

[8:09] and i just wanted to note on that though that the fire contract in 2021

[8:15] little canada fire department who you know provides fire services here for the

[8:19] city for 2021 they came in with a

[8:22] 3.5 reduction for 2021 this year they have a five percent or

[8:28] four percent increase and so the two-year average of their contract

[8:32] is just a quarter of a percent

[8:37] based on those levees that option one option two

[8:41] we take that uh versus the the tax capacity that tax capacity that's set by

[8:46] the ramsey county assessor's office but our city tax rate based on option

[8:52] one and option 2 are either 25.559

[8:57] or 25.419

[9:00] which is a 6.57 percent increase or 5.99 increase in order to put that in

[9:06] perspective if we go to the next slide what that means here are all the

[9:12] communities in ramsey county and their tax rates based on the

[9:16] preliminary levy as you can see either option one or

[9:21] option two our tax rate compared to the other communities in

[9:26] ramsey county we are the third lowest we had been

[9:30] the sixth lowest for several years in 2021

[9:35] we dropped to the fourth lowest and now with this preliminary levy at five

[9:39] percent uh

[9:42] or four point five percent we do drop again to uh the third lowest so our tax

[9:47] rate uh is declining based on these levees

[9:52] and we can go to the next slide but then

[9:57] here is based on i picked one of them i picked the 4.5 increase

[10:02] in pink there is our median value home

[10:07] in little canada had a value of 293 000 in 2021

[10:13] that has increased by 3.75 percent for calculating the 2022 taxes so 304

[10:20] thousand uh important they paid 676

[10:24] last year based on the 4.5 they would pay

[10:28] 7.47 it would be a 71 dollar increase and the next slide is showing

[10:37] though that based on either option one or option two

[10:41] this is a newer slide and the numbers are pretty small but what it's looking

[10:45] is all the communities in ramsey county is looking at their median value home

[10:50] and it's taking their preliminary tax rate and it's saying

[10:54] what they would pay in city property taxes so as you can see here

[10:59] either option one or option two option one we're at seven hundred fifty one

[11:03] dollars for option two we're at seven hundred and forty seven uh we are the

[11:08] third lowest in ramsey county

[11:12] and only a four dollar difference and a four dollar difference between the four

[11:16] and a half percent or the five percent levy

[11:20] um and so of that the four and a half percent levy like i said they would pay

[11:25] 747 dollars and what that's funding is the the largest portion is our police

[11:31] services budget that 333 dollars a year of that property tax bill goes for

[11:37] police services or 27.75 per month

[11:42] and then we go with our fire services at 118 dollars per year

[11:46] our parks recreation community services at 98 that's uh for maintaining our

[11:51] parks public works that's for our snow plowing

[11:55] our street maintenance at 77 we have general government at 65

[12:00] capital infrastructure as we had uh talked about

[12:03] in the levee we have that 122 200 and so 25 dollars

[12:09] annually is for that street reconstruction

[12:12] community development which is our planning and building inspections is at

[12:16] 21 and then we round it out with our

[12:18] contingency so

[12:20] 747 dollars per year or 62 dollars per month

[12:32] that is mayor council that is the administration finance city

[12:38] clerk correct

[12:42] the city hall building the maintenance of the city hall building is in there

[12:45] too okay

[12:48] great question that was nice to have that in there

[12:52] service here

[12:55] we're going to be talking a little bit more in detail about the general fund

[12:58] but as council knows and the public we've got

[13:04] a budget document that's a hundred pages or so

[13:08] and we talked about all about the funds that we're budgeting tonight and so

[13:12] those are the budgets that we'll be

[13:14] approving this evening

[13:19] and more on the general fund so that is you know we've talked about this before

[13:23] but this is our chief operating budget here for the city uh we have a balanced

[13:28] budget and so here first of all is the expenditure side we've got 4 million

[13:33] three hundred eighty three thousand three hundred and ten dollars

[13:36] uh for that budget in expenditures the largest portion is forty one percent for

[13:41] police services uh parks and community services is just under thirteen percent

[13:46] and then general government just under 13

[13:49] public works 11 community development and then we rounded out with contingency

[13:55] and then on the revenue side since we have a balanced budget we have

[14:00] the the same dollar amount there four million three hundred eighty three

[14:03] thousand three hundred and ten dollars for 2022

[14:07] and since the services that we talked about on the slide before with the

[14:11] police services fire services plowing streets

[14:15] maintaining our parks we don't charge for those services

[14:19] and so we need to collect revenue for that and so property taxes is how we pay

[14:24] for that and so that's 71 percent of our general fund budget

[14:29] and then licenses and permits are 7

[14:33] intergovernmental revenue and we go down from there with license and permits we

[14:38] did increase that by 36

[14:41] 300 from the 2021 budget anticipating that we will have increased

[14:47] building permit activity here in little canada in 2022

[14:52] had we not had that we would have either needed to cut

[14:56] expenditures or increase the property tax levy further

[15:03] property tax relief if there is anybody that would

[15:07] like further information the state does provide direct property tax relief to

[15:12] taxpayers we've listed four programs there the

[15:16] homeowners homestead credit refund special property

[15:19] tax refund the renter's property tax refund and the senior citizens property

[15:23] tax defrail program they can contact the minnesota

[15:26] department of revenue the phone number is there on the screen

[15:30] or the website or they can contact the city and ask for me and i would be happy

[15:35] to assist them also

[15:39] tonight then we would just ask uh for you to close the pub public hearing then

[15:43] to approve the 2022 preliminary property tax levy either at option one or option

[15:49] two or another option approve the 2022 budget and then approve

[15:55] the 2022 salary wage schedule heidi does have will verbally give you

[16:01] an update on that schedule we have a couple changes that we're making not in

[16:06] the dollars but um on some certifications on that

[16:12] with that i can take any questions

[16:19] yes i'm mightily impressed that we've been able to decrease the

[16:24] level of city tax rate relative to our pure cities of the county um year after

[16:30] year despite having uh increases what it tells me is that as a city we've done a

[16:34] good job being moderate in our approach and not

[16:37] spending too much um and i think that ought to be commended

[16:42] so uh i am just it's a miracle that we're

[16:47] we've gone down as far as we have been despite not particularly wanting too

[16:51] much for for for any given thing here in the city

[16:54] everything still works and that's good that we're not cutting to the bone

[16:59] too close

[17:02] mr mayor and council members actually i think one of the reasons just uh

[17:06] observation but the other two cities that were in front of us are

[17:11] lower than us in the past would be wiper township and badness heights and

[17:15] their biggest reason for jumping is

[17:19] they have had some deferred investment i would say in their public streets um

[17:23] streets and and improvements and um wiper township did a pretty

[17:28] massive bonding

[17:30] project to do some some catch-up and uh insights is also increasing their

[17:35] their public streets funding um in recent years and so

[17:39] um kudos to you that have done a long-term

[17:43] you know capital improvement plan and tried to stick to that uh

[17:47] one million dollar range that's that's kept our streets in really really good

[17:51] shape for a long period of time and uh and has you know we've increased from

[17:55] that as needed so um it's not just our personnel cost it's

[18:01] actually long-term policy decisions in regards to our infrastructure that i

[18:05] think are making that that difference well you know i would agree with that

[18:10] chris but i also think that the staff um

[18:14] from you on down everybody brenda especially in the finance

[18:19] department have done very good job of keeping us aware of where we're at

[18:23] and what our goals are and how do we get there

[18:26] and the thing that i've appreciated the most

[18:29] is how well staff listens i i i do i commend all of you for that

[18:35] that you do listen you don't come in with preconceived ideas

[18:39] uh it's not your way or the highway and it's made

[18:42] working with you very easy and it's it's been very healthy for us as

[18:46] a council i've i can't say enough good things about

[18:50] that

[18:55] so i i guess i'll i'll pile on as well as you know that the whole budget

[18:58] process now is i'm sorry guys the whole budget process now is almost taking the

[19:03] full year right but it but it's it's becoming a non-event it it because it's

[19:09] part of the nature it's part of what we do

[19:11] you know on a monthly basis or quarterly basis

[19:15] it's less of an event to put the budget together so i i think that the

[19:20] systematic way that the staff is going through this is amazing i appreciate it

[19:25] chris also kudos to you for having a breakthrough with the ramsey county

[19:29] sheriff's department and the contract cities

[19:32] to you know we've we've fought for years about we think

[19:36] we're paying a little too much share in this and and

[19:40] you and the team have been able to put together the right pitch

[19:44] to get a little tweak in there that that saved this entire city a lot of money

[19:48] without repercussion you know it's not less service we're

[19:52] we're equalizing the load across the contract

[19:55] city so thanks for that

[20:02] so what do we need to do here accept the budget first

[20:08] five or four and a half i will uh make mostly close public hearings oh second

[20:14] there's a mole motion to close public hearing all those

[20:18] in favor say aye opposed always keep us in line tomorrow ocean

[20:22] carries fives here we don't want them rushing the stage

[20:30] so with i i would i'll make a motion that would

[20:34] go with the five percent thank you because i was a could have

[20:37] done that too i'll be the heavy this year

[20:41] somebody else's turn next year we will have uh

[20:45] no cost

[20:53] a month is not that great there's uh potentially salary increases that are

[20:59] coming up that we need to we need to deal with and

[21:03] that five percent will will help a lot more

[21:08] i will second that motion all right we have a motion in a second

[21:12] to increase the levy to five percent all those in favor

[21:16] say aye aye aye opposed

[21:19] motion carries 5-0 mayor i'll make the motion we adopt the

[21:24] 2022 budget option one

[21:32] i have a motion in a second all those in favor say aye

[21:35] aye opposed well she carries 5-0

[21:40] we have to have a motion for certifying the levy and all those

[21:46] where is that covered you covered but i think let's have one

[21:49] more motion to

[21:52] do the reduction in the debt levy as council knows we have a scheduled

[21:56] levy for the public works building of 183 618-75

[22:02] we pay that with our water and sewer fund

[22:05] and so we can certify that levy at zero

[22:10] zero a motion in a second all those in favor say aye aye aye

[22:16] opposed motion carries five zero

2022 Budget and Tax Levy Presentation - Public Hearing

Transcript