|
 Treasurer Chuck Conzo explained the laws around passing a tax
levy. He explained that the public hearing had to take place, must
be publicly announced seven days in advance. He said the soonest the
announcement could run would be this Thursday, December 15th.
Therefore, the council would have to hold the hearing, and an
adjourned voting session on Thursday, December 22nd. That meeting
will commence at 7 p.m. in the Council Chambers at City Hall.
For the past two years, the city has held its tax levy flat, not
raising or lowering the levy. At the December 5th meeting, during
the open discussion portion of the meeting, Rick Hoefle said he felt
the city could do more to help local property owners. He said
lowering the city’s property tax would send a signal that the
aldermen are interested in seeing the city grow and attract new
people. He also referred to it as a time to “throw down the
gauntlet” to other taxing bodies in Logan County, with the hopes
that they too would lower their levies.
 Hoefle said he and Jonie Tibbs had spent time discussing it with
Conzo, and the three had determined the city could cut its levy by
$177,000. He said that one way the city could reduce the dollars
needed was not to invest in doing a new block in the downtown
streetscape plan next year. He added that before the city goes on to
a new block, it needs to fix the problems with Pulaski Street. He
said fixing those problems would cost less than doing a new block.
In addition, he said with the new Route 66 signage coming into the
downtown area soon, the city could expect more income generated
through sales tax. He said that some estimates indicated the sales
tax collected by downtown businesses could increase by as much as
$600,000.
During that discussion, City Administrator Clay Johnson said he was
in favor of doing whatever possible to help local taxpayers, but at
the same time, he didn’t think the city should rely on an increase
in sales tax revenue that has not yet been realized.
Michelle Bauer also expressed concerns saying that the city has
goals and projects for the future, that taxpayers want to see
accomplished, such as streets. The city is also looking at the EPA
mandated upgrades in the sewer department that will cost millions of
dollars.
This week, Conzo began the discussion talking about the increased
size of the payment for the 2017 General Obligation Bond. He said
the city would need about $7,000 more next year to make the payment
on the new bond that will be issued the end of this year.
Conzo said the city could increase the total levy, or hold the
current amount and take the $7,000 from some other expense line.
Bauer confirmed that no alternate revenue source could cover that
$7,000 and Conzo said no, the city would have to reduce budgeted
expenses in some other line item to make up the $7,000 difference.
Hoefle said that he had spent time in the last week talking with
Johnson about his suggestion to cut the levy and that Johnson had
come up with a good idea for the city. He asked Johnson to explain.
Johnson said to start, he felt that cutting the levy by $177,000 was
way too much. He said the council needed to consider the rising
costs of their regular expenses and other increases that would
impact the city. He added that there was a big concern about the
financial condition of the state. He said that right now, the city
is getting its share of state-distributed funds. But he said, “at
some point, legislators will wake up and say give it back.”
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Johnson concluded that the city could however cut its levy by $50,000 with the
hopes that the cut would help spur economic development in Lincoln. He said it
would be difficult, but he believed the department heads could come up with cuts
to their budgets that would make up for the lost income.
Steve Parrott observed that if the state does say give it back, plus the
governor gets the property tax freeze he is asking for, the city would be hurt
even more.
Johnson agreed and added that the aldermen also need to consider that the state
is just a few weeks away from the expiration of its stop-gap budget, and has
made no moves to approve a budget for January 1st. He said without that budget,
state payments will once again stop, hindering the city’s cash flow.
Bauer commented that her concern was in the proposed property tax freeze. She
noted that if the city cuts the levy this year, and the tax freeze goes into
effect, then the city is stuck, there is nothing it can do.
Bauer also said, while the $50,000 was a significant amount to the city, would
it even be noticeable to the taxpayer when spread out over every property owner.
Jeff Hoinacki said overall probably not because other taxing bodies are going to
raise their tax levies. Parrott commented that if the city raised its tax, that
might not be noticeable either, but for the aldermen, it was a matter of doing
what is right for the taxpayers.
Bauer said she agreed that the city had to do what is right, but what if that
leads to a lack of services to the citizens. She said she felt the aldermen
needed to look at the bigger picture, the overall cost to the city.
Hoefle brought the primary discussion to a close saying that he and Johnson had
gone at it “hard and fast” and in the end, Johnson had convinced Hoefle that
cutting the tax levy by the $177,000 was not feasible. Hoefle said he felt that
cutting the tax by $50,000 was the best the city could do, and he felt they
needed to go with it.
In should be noted, that during the discussion aldermen referred to some of
these numbers by a percentage point. The city of Lincoln levy’s a specific
dollar amount. That dollar amount is distributed to individual property owners
according to the assessed value of the property and billed by the county. The
percentage reflected on the annual tax bill is a number achieved after the fact,
based on the percent of the tax taken by an individual taxing body in comparison
to the total bill.
[Nila Smith] |
