02-10-14 Common Council Meeting Minutes

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REGULAR MEETING FEBRUARY 10, 2014 don't think it's our intention to be inflexible about the structure of taxation but It is our intent to establish that we are down to muscle and bone and there is no way you can cut $8 million out of the budget of the city of South Bend especially when you are talking about property tax dollars that goes mostly to the general fund without talking about serious reductions in the availability in police, fire, roads, parks in order to meet a very crushing restriction on our revenue. Councilman Scott: Noted a conversation a week ago that they would be taking a $200,000 hit right away but also know what it would do to our community if it were completely taken away, they still are encouraging that we are pushing for this but are also looking for alternatives Councilman Davis: Heard a mention about defense and offense, I played ball all my life and the best defense you have is a great offense, so what are we doing in transition? I was part of a team a couple years ago, we had Senate Bill 4-43, which is the personal property business taxes adopted for the initial park area which allowed the growth of reality and creating over 32 jobs. What I'm getting at is about the replacement of new housing, which will allow us to grow, extending city services, bringing new revenue toward our enterprise zones as well, so what I'm getting at is the making a difference, talking about a transition, clearly as Indiana is working towards a more business friendly environment as much as possible to recruit these business in on the back end of it as we support it, what are we doing the interim to capture some of the businesses that are trying to recruit in Indiana for South Bend it goes back to housing and property taxes but also tax break, what are we doing in transition to make those things helpful for us to grow if those things happen . Are we talking about cross training with police and fire department as they do in Michigan, I'm not for it but I want to stress that there's need to a plan not just an A but a C and D, and stress introducing new housing to this area, thank you again and I support this. Councilmember Dr. Ferlic- I conquer with 100% with what you said. I do think we have to look further in to this and that as in phasing it out and have to look to our competitors to the east and west on Ohio and Illinois do not have a personal business personal property tax. The biggest hindrance on getting job in this state is having an uneducated work force, and I think that's where Michelle comes so I agree with you at this point. I conquer with your resolution. Councilmember Dr. Varner- If we put politics aside and look at the situation in the city of South Bend, it's the councilor's responsibility and the mayor's administration. I take that seriously and I support this resolution as I recognize a couple things 1. The city is up against the tax caps, in other words because no new net growth in the city we have raised the maximum amount of revenue that we can with the amount of growth, we have however administered dis- district over a large portion of the community and I'm afraid that dis - districts have been known to remove significant amounts of revenue from their revenue stream, so if we ask the state we have to take an honest look at our dis - districts and corporate limits of South Bend when you have 40% of our geographic area and 75% of our new growth within the last 20 years within dis- district. We sort of created some of the problems for ourselves it appears to be successful in some areas but other areas it has left us very underfunded. I do believe in the fiscal responsibility primarily as believe that we have no place else left to go with for those revenues. I believe we can start at home doing some things which would maybe not leave us in this situation in future, and if you are referencing the state of Illinois they usually keep the large corporations by bribing them with huge tax packages. Council President Oliver- I'm glad to see the school corporations staying in the city, I think it is important as it impacts the citizens and the students. A Public Hearing was now held at this time. Those wishing to speak in favor were none. Those wishing to speak in opposition: Jesse Davis- P.O. Box 10205, South Bend, IN: First off making comments like other counties in Indiana are not having to deal with tax, numerous times you implemented a safety tax, implemented a lower tax, you doubled the lower tax, we've been slapped with a realtor tax that was supposed to be temporary, now you want to bask business with personal tax, only business that gets hit hard is the small business, big businesses are able to do that all the time, 1. If you 33