12-07-1998 Council Minutes Truth in Taxation Hearing

Home Browse Search

5' . MINUTES OF THE TRUTH IN TAXATION HEARING HELD AT 7:00 P.M. ON MONDAY, DECEMBER 1998 IN THE ORONO COUNCIL CHAMBERS Members present: Mayor Jabbour and Council Members Goetten, Peterson, Flint and Kelley. Staff present: City Administrator Ron Moorse, Finance Director Tom Kuehn, Assistant Finance Director Ron Olson, and Recorder Jamie Gemar. The meeting was called to order at 7:00 p.m. by Mayor Jabbour. Mayor Jabbour indicated the purpose of the Truth In Taxation hearing was to provide an opportunity for citizens to obtain information about the proposed 1999 Budget and Tax Levy. Moorse began the presentation of the budget by indicating that City's property tax levy is 12.3% of a property owner's total property tax bill. He then summarized the elements of the tax levy increase. The preliminary tax levy approved by the Council was $2,339,140 dollars. This was an increase of $114,010 dollars or 5.1% over the 1998 levy. The General Fund Budget, which has the greatest impact on the tax levy is proposed at $3,850,340 dollars. This is an increase of $212,245 dollars or 5.8% over the 1998 budget. Moorse reviewed a list of expenditures items causing the increase in the General Fund budget. These included expenditures related to the update of the City's Comprehensive Plan and Zoning Code, the addition of a full time Assistant Zoning Administrator and a full time Animal Control Officer, annual employee compensation adjustments, and increased costs related to contracted is services such as assessing and fire services. Mayor Jabbour stated resident expectations and the budget increase are not parallel. The Navarre area residents believe the city should provide higher levels of service to the area. Kelley voiced concern over the $35,000 for the update of the Comprehensive Plan Amendment in the 1999 budget. Kelley was concerned that this would not be a one shot budget item and that it would linger on to the next year's budget. He indicated he would rather see this one -time expenditure funded by the 1998 General Fund budget surplus. Council discussed different options for reducing the tax levy for the 1999 budget. Moorse indicated although new development causes expenditure increases, it also generates new tax capacity which expands the base over which property taxes are levied. This helps to limit the impact of expenditure increases on City taxpayers in general. However, in recent years the reductions in property class rates for higher - valued residential properties and commercial /industrial properties have caused the City's tax capacity or tax base to be reduced, even though the City has experienced significant new development. Flint indicated he had asked Moorse to determine the level of property taxes that would be generated using the 1998 tax capacity rate in the absence of property class rate changes. Moorse showed a property tax calculation that indicated without the property class rate changes the 1998 tax capacity 40 rate of 14.716 would have generated $2,326,000 dollars in property tax revenue. This is