10-14-2019 Council Packet - Laserfiche WebLink

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MINUTES OF THE ORONO CITY COUNCIL MEETING Monday, September 23, 2019 7:00 o’clock p.m. _____________________________________________________________________________________ Page 3 of 11 Osmek indicated the committee did have a discussion about the gas tax and how that was supposed to go toward roads and bridges. There is some leakage, however, that goes into snowmobile clubs because the thinking is that snowmobilers buy gas and pay that tax and it was felt some of that money should go towards trails. It is the same situation with boats. The committee has been keeping an eye on where that money is going but Minnesota did not need a gas tax this year and does not need one next year. Osmek indicated he will continue fighting any increase in Minnesota’s current 28.5 cents gas tax. Crosby asked how much of that money was diverted to light rail. Osmek noted the light rail system did have an increase in revenue and an increase in ridership but that it is still heavily funded by the taxpayers. Osmek stated he also wanted to talk about the Lake Minnetonka Conservation District bill since people are misrepresenting it. The bill was never going to increase density on the lake. The LMCD has not performed a density study since 2004, and if they feel there is a density issue, why have they not done anther study to look at it. The bill was designed to allow the cities to be in control of their land management and to not let the LMCD board, which consists of 13 unelected people, telling cities what they can do with noise and traffic issues. Osmek stated he is not going to hand over land authority to 13 people who do not live in his town and do not represent him and that the cities should keep their authority. Osmek stated he also had representatives in his office from the Metropolitan Council. In Minnesota there a lot of cities that are the same size as Orono or smaller. A number of those cities are already built up and they will not be rezoning any land or putting in new developments. Osmek indicated he will be getting together with the Metropolitan Council in October and the goal is to put together a methodology that says if your zoning has not changed by more than 10 percent, then you do not have to do a Comprehensive Plan Update. The Metropolitan Council agrees with that and they will be working on a bill to help cities not have to go through that exercise. Hopefully by next year that will be worked out. FINANCE DIRECTOR REPORT 13. ADOPT 2020 PRELIMINARY TAX LEVY Olson stated by state law the City is required to adopt a preliminary property tax levy by September 30. The truth-in-taxation meeting will be held December 9 at 6:30 p.m., with the final levy being adopted that evening. Once the preliminary levy is set, it cannot be increased, and it can only be decreased. The property tax levy consists of three components. The first is the operating levy, which is adopted to fund the general fund operating budget. The second part is the Pavement Management Levy that is needed to fund the City’s Pavement Maintenance Plan. The final levy component is for the debt service of the City’s outstanding bonds. The City’s revenue budget is now around $9,143,000, which is a 6.6 percent increase over last year. As it relates to total intragovernmental revenue, new regulations do not allow cities to net grant money and it now has to be recorded as revenue and the expenditures need to be recorded, which is what largely constituted the increase in revenue.