[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