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4110 CITY OF SOUTH BEND I OFFICE OF THE CLERK
<br /> when I took a look at the most recent information, and this is directly related to Eddy Street, I
<br /> thought we were very close in property tax revenues, to what it was to pay these bonds, within
<br /> about $300. I was very shocked by that, that assumes that there's not going to be a lot of appeals
<br /> and that the property taxes are not going to go down. One (1) of the things we talked about
<br /> yesterday that they didn't mention, is that while the City is in good shape financially, there are
<br /> areas that have some stresses to them, so if for some reason the area of Eddy Street Commons
<br /> starts to go down in value, or there are a lot of appeals and it goes down, then we will go to the
<br /> primary source of the funding, which is the General Fund, to be able to take money out of it. One
<br /> (1)of the concerns we have as it relates to debt,is that what we want to accomplish here is amazing,
<br /> but if we have stresses that are going to come to us financially in certain areas, we are going to
<br /> have problems. That's what I think is so important when you talk about segregated taxation, there
<br /> is money in TIF that is captured that has to go back into TIF districts, and how we've paid for that
<br /> and how we set that up is very significant. We all know we have to borrow and we all know where
<br /> we have to be on this. The newspaper labeled me as parsimonious,but one (1)of the things I want
<br /> to make sure that Dr.Mueller's team and the Council works with is,that when we borrow and look
<br /> to do things, how are we going to pay for them, and what stresses will it put on us in the future? I
<br /> think the dialogue of that is very critical. I do believe if you look at the most recent 2019 budget
<br /> for Fund#436, you will find its very close to break even, and the numbers are based on estimates
<br /> because we haven't collected anything yet. We don't know what that is going to be, or what kind
<br /> of people are over there having substantial appeals on property taxes. The most important thing is,
<br /> I think we've had good dialogue. It's part of the budget process to talk about debt, and about what
<br /> we're doing. Ultimately,to be able to do all of the things we want to do,we have to make sure we
<br /> have the money to be able to do this, and we have to know where we are going to stand as we
<br /> move forward in the future. I think the Council and Administration have done a good job in trying
<br /> to move forward in this,but I encourage you to work much stronger together to understand where
<br /> we have problems. If we're short in a district, there's nothing wrong with that, but we've got to
<br /> have the transparency to say we're short and that we have to take a look at it.
<br /> Jorden Giger,61455 Druid Lane,stated,I want to echo what Regina said regarding the Department
<br /> of Community Investment's work that shows that they've really been listening. Regarding the
<br /> Western Streetscape from Falcon to Dundee, I've talked to a lot of business owners there in
<br /> particular, and there is a couple that owns a bakery that has a lot of concerns in terms of
<br /> communication, and not knowing what is happening regarding the redevelopment projects there.
<br /> When they were doing work initially on the first (1st) phase of the streetscape plan, they talked
<br /> about how it affected their business because there wasn't as much traffic. Also, during winter,
<br /> there was a lot of snow on the sidewalks and their customers had a hard time walking through the
<br /> snow. It would be good if you could talk to the folks there, because he didn't even know that they
<br /> were going to develop that part of Western,too, and I had to tell him that was actually in this plan.
<br /> Also, regarding the matching funds for the Department of Labor Youth Build program, I wanted
<br /> to know what are the wages, are they at$10.10, are they higher than the typical median income in
<br /> the area? Also, have you all been working with employers in the census tracts? We look at the
<br /> census tracts,and in particular in Regina's district,the people who are ages sixteen(16)to twenty-
<br /> four(24),black and brown people, young people have unemployment rates of fifty percent(50%)
<br /> and sixty percent (60%), and my employer is hiring people to do industrial sewing and they train
<br /> people for free,they also pay one hundred percent(100%) of their employees' health insurance. I
<br /> just want to know if you're working with employers around those areas to see if they can get
<br /> involved with this effort.
<br /> EXCELLENCE I ACCOUNTABILITY I INNOVATION I INCLUSION I EMPOWERMENT
<br /> 455 County-City Building 1227 W Jefferson BvId l South Bend,Indiana 466011 p 574.235.92211f 574.235.9173(TTD 574.235.55671 www.southbendin.gov
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