09-28-15 Common Council Meeting Minutes

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REGULAR MEETING September 28, 2015 Councilmember Oliver Davis- This year they were still saying call your councilmen, about the sidewalk after the allocation had already finished. I had to explain to the people that our allocation was already pre-established. It created a little issue. Can that be dealt with? When our allocations are done it becomes the role of the executive branch as it was in the first place. How can that be clarified this year so that it doesn’t happen the same way next year. Eric Horvath (Public Works)- I am not sure I fully understand the question. th Councilmember Davis- In the Sixth (6) District I submitted for Prairie Apartments. However, we called about the City sidewalk program they were not being told about the City sidewalk program they were being told to call their councilmember because the councilmember allocates money for their district. So I was wondering how they were calling me when they already knew we had allocated our monies. Especially during election season it became a political nightmare. In the future how can we clarify that we already allocated our sidewalks so the people don’t get confused and call their councilperson. Eric Horvath (Public Works) - I apologize, that shouldn’t happen. We had a deadline and after those deadlines that program is going to be closed for the year. The reimbursement is open and is still open. Time is running short on that, obviously the weather. That program worked very well. th There is an application in our office on the 13 floor. Councilmember Dr. Ferlic- Slide ten (10) you stated, “Who sees property taxes is city, town, school, TIFF, and county library etc.,” TIF gets $71 million, cities and towns get $104 Million does that mean the TIF’s get a disproportionate amount of the property taxes? We are forty percent (40%) TIF in South Bend, forty percent (40%) TIF in Mishawaka, right? John Murphy (Controller) - I’m not sure about Mishawaka. These are the numbers for St. Joseph County as a whole, all the unit so you can evaluate that as you see. Councilmember Dr. Ferlic- It looks like it gets a disproportionate amount. Follow-up with it. It’s kind of an interesting phenomenon. John Murphy (Controller) - It is on the Indiana Gateway public access portal so I would encourage any citizen to go on there and take a look. There is a just a ton of budget information. Councilmember Dr. Ferlic- Slide sixteen (16) you had budget expenditures by type and you had payment in lieu of taxes $5.7 Million at two percent (2%). What is that? John Murphy (Controller) - That is payments for our utilities to ourselves. It’s not the other type of payment in lieu of taxes you may be familiar with as far as a non-profit. Councilmember Dr. Ferlic- Is the Mayor still here? John Murphy (Controller) - He’s upstairs. Councilmember Dr. Ferlic- There is an interesting phenomenon. The Governor of Maine has proposed non-profit pay fifty percent (50%) of their assessed value of their property. Payment in lieu of taxes, kind of interesting. Councilmember Schey- You provided a projected property tax revenue with a spike in 2019 and then it goes back down again, why? John Murphy- This is a projection we had a consultant do for us. With property taxes you have Levy-Rolls quotient it’s supposed to provide a cost of living increase each year, it will occur in the next three (3) to four (4) years. This is based off of assumptions they made based on tax raises, other municipalities in the area, net assessed value and so forth. They will benefit from Levy growth quotient increases in the next couple years. We would be happy with that part of the chart. Councilmember Schey- These are just estimates and obviously the future is always an estimate. 25