02-10-14 Common Council Meeting Minutes

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REGULAR MEETING FEBRUARY 10, 2014 Councihnember Gavin Ferlic Community Investments Team, due to time constraints we did not have a full question and answer session so we send 14 -13 to the full council with no recommendation. Mayor Buttigieg: The reason that it is coming before the council at this time is it is important for cities and School Corporation in other units of local government to weigh in on a discussion that is going on in Indianapolis that could affect our bottom line. Well ordinarily, I am pleased to stand aside the school corporation on offense so to speak talking about good things happening. Dr. Smith and Michelle met earlier today as we were celebrating partnership with the energy office that benefited the students at green elementary school. Today, we want defense as there is a move in the state house that we think could damage the ability of both the city and school corporation to meet the needs of those we serve. We are one of a number of cities, with the most recent one is Goshen to look at a joint resolution where different units of local government speak with one voice about the consequences of the actions being considered in Indianapolis. A few remarks I would like to observe and turn it over to the President of the School Corporation. Michelle Engles- 215 S St. Joseph St- I appreciate the opportunity to speak in solidarity with you, I urge you to adopt this resolution opposing the legislation that will either eliminate or reduce the personal property tax in Indiana as we are not sure what they will do. As I urge you to adopt this resolution, we have not adopted it yet but we are hoping the school board will adopt it on February 18th. So at that point, I can only tell you about my vote, but I hope that it would become a joint resolution among the school board and the common council. We as elected government bodies are asked to provide a lot to the citizens and you know what you're asked to provide. One of things is plowing the streets, police and fire protection, overseeing vacant and abandoned housing, managing water works, waste, I can go on and on, you know that. The importance cannot be overstated of all these duties and the things the city must do. The school corporation has an important charge, it is responsible for educating all citizens, every citizen it's a huge responsibility and requires significant community investment. It requires significant investment, but I think and hope you all think it is worth it, we need an educated citizenry. With this city we cannot afford to lose the $8 million that is projected to be lost if this legislation passes. Likewise, the school corporation cannot afford to lose the projected $3.4 million that it is set to lose if this legislation passes. These are projected numbers but they are big numbers, I don't want to say that we are bare bones operation but we can't afford to be constantly cutting year after year. I was excited to be approached with this idea of a joint resolution, we have a chance to stand in solidarity at this time and speak to the State in a much bigger voice. We have passed resolutions occasionally opposing things in the state and we recently did, but when two elected bodies come together we speak with a much stronger voice and that helps better represent the citizens that we were elected to serve. Mayor Buttigieg- President to clarify, this is not a regional north vs. south, Indianapolis vs outskirts, or republican vs democratic. I was recently a part of group of mayors, the republican mayor of Indianapolis, democratic mayor of Kokomo, republican mayor of Evansville, democratic mayor of Fort Wayne, myself, and republican mayor of Carmel are all sitting down with the governor to urge him to the lead way away from legislation that does not provide a replacement revenue in the event that this is phased out for businesses. There is a valid concern that having the business personal property tax on the books in Indiana can make less attractive for investment, the message that we have to the state house senate and the governor that we will be worse off if we try to pursue that tax relief in a way that undermines education and infrastructure in which we compete. Indiana is already in the top 10 from tax climates, but we've seen recently we lose out on business opportunities that choose to go to a higher tax environment presumably because the overall package in the terms of the infrastructure, education, work force and other resources available to them make it worth paying that price. The Governor was very reassuring in our discussion with him but then we got mixed singles from the state. Tomorrow I will be meeting the Republican Mayor of Indianapolis it would be helpful to say that the city of South Bend weighed in. and bigger opportunity for a school board to speak on this for us to say that the city and the schools have weighed -in, not to say that we believe that you should never adjust your trust, the personal property tax but rather to say we prefer the means of flexibility that we already have, tax evasion process that is in the hands in our elected officials in the council. Secondly if it is going to be phased out that there be an adequate replacement replicable, they gave a Michigan example which many of the components of this reform have been sited, 4 years were spent devising a proper revenue replacement and the reason for that revenue replacement and the reason for that revenue replacement guarantee by the state. I 32