Re: Park Board Funding
Tim:
Perhaps some people didn't, as you say, see why the mayor supported full
funding of the Park Boards infastructure - perhaps it is because the mayor
didn't support the Park Board's desire to fully fund its infastucture. Let
me see if I can explain some of this funding stuff - it is complicated, so
please bear with me.
The Park Board sets its own property tax level - as does the City Council
and the Library Board.
The Park Board was created by the legislature in 1883. It was not created
by the City of Mpls. However, even though all three of these bodies (PB, LB
& CC) all set their own tax levy, that levy can not exceed the ceiling that
is set by the Board of Estimate and Taxation. The Board of Estimate and
Taxation is made up of 7 people; the mayor, the pres of City Council, the
chair of the City Council ways and means committee, a Park Board Rep, a
Library Board rep, and two others elected by the citizens in the General
Election.
The Park Board felt that it needed to have more revenue to support our
expanding system. In case you don't know, the Park Board is the largest
daycare provider in Mpls, we operate 50 (up from 15 just 25 years ago)
recreation centers, 53 miles of both biking and hiking trails, 29 ice
skating facilities, provides after school activities for thousands of kids,
maintains all of the cities boulevard trees, and hundreds of softball and
soccer fields, to name just a few things. Many of these things were added
or greatly expanded without a basic change in the tax rate. Everybody, from
the legislature to NRP wants to give the Park Board money to build new
things, but it is much harder to find money to maintain these facilities
once they are build. Maintainance is just not as glamorous as building new.
Thus the need for new reliable monies.
The Park Board could get the money from the people of Mpls in one of two
ways: 1) put the matter on the ballot and let the people vote for it, i.e.
a referendum, or 2) use the taxing authority that was given to the Board
by the legislature in 1883. (a side note: because of some complicated
reasons I don't know how to explain, the first method would put a larger
burden on home owners and a smaller burden on downtown business than method
two.)
Because, the mayor used her power on the Board of Taxation to keep the tax
ceiling low, the Park Board had no choice but to go directly to the people
for a referendum to get the needed money, and made preparations to do so.
At this point, the mayor got a little panicked at the thought of 3
referendums on the ballot at one time, since the Library and School Boards
were already doing referendums. The feeling was that if there were too may
referendums on the ballot at once, they would all fail. Therefore, the
mayor relented and used her influence and her vote to get the Board of
Estimate to approve a ceiling high enough for the Park Board to raise its
tax levy to its desired level. Please note, that this is all Park Board
doing, and has nothing to do with City Council money. It in no way
increases or decreases City Council money.
And now, all is well that ends well. No, no, no not so fast. Certain City
Council members feel that somehow all of this added up to the mayor doing a
secret deal with the Park Board and are looking for a way to punish her and
the Park Board. Because the tax levy is set by the Park Board there is
nothing the Council can do about it, but: All cities, including Mpls,
get state aid to cities A normal regular kind of thing. There has been a
long standing agreement that the money that comes to Mpls is divided up
between the City Council and the Park Board according to fixed formula - it
is something like 87% to 13% -- but I am not sure of the exact split. So,
now, certain council members have been making noises of unilaterally
changing the agreement, and to keep part of the Park Board.s share. This is
possible because the money passes thru the City Council's books.
Now, there is a totally unrelated thing going on that some people get
confused with what I just outlined above. Over the past couple of years
Public Works (read City Council) and the Park Board have looked over what
each is doing in order to see if we could save any money by exchanging some
tasks. For example, the Park Board has taken on the task of maintaining
certain green spaces owned by Public Works and Public Works has taken on the
task of maintaining certain parkways. There are a few more areas being
looked at and some others agreed to, all in the name of saving the taxpayers
a few dollars thru increased efficency.
I hope I have clarified this some, and not just made it more confusing.
Sincerely,
Dean Zimmermann
Commissioner Mpls Park Board. Dist 3
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
612-722-8768
-----Original Message-----
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]]On
Behalf Of timothy connolly
Sent: Tuesday, December 12, 2000 4:01 PM
To: Multiple recipients of list
Subject: truth in taxation
i attended the truth and taxation meeting monday
evening which mark brunswick reported on in todays
strib.
one thing i think he failed to mention was a
summarized statement by clic detailing their general
opinions of the mayor's proposed budget.
those opinions included consternation at library
budgets in the out years relative to branch library
remodeling, etc. they recommended that $1.6 million be
reserved annually beginning in 2006 for construction
projects starting in 2009. they also are extremely
concerned with potential future library operating
budgets. these issues have already been raised in this
forum.
they also failed to understand why the mayor would
fully fund park board infrastructure at the same time
she was shorting the city's infrastructure gap. some-
one, i don't know who brought up the subject of
conditions of park board infrastructure coming over to
the city in exchange for maintenance services provided
by the park board.
Clic is also miffed that decision packages and target
strategies are not part of the reviewal process. good
question.
they also think that we ought to do a dry run on
avenue of the arts with temporary barriers, etc to see
what the impact on traffic will be before we put that
cart before that horse.
the meeting ended early. council seemed surprised that
more people didn't speak. what could anyone say that
would make a difference. we had just witnessed several
people go before the council literally pleading for
help with affordable housing knowing that this council
and this mayor had been forewarned from the day their
butts hit those chairs that there was a storm brewing.
as the affordable housing task force said in so many
words we have passed the crisis state and now are in
catastrophe mode.
one woman and her husband and child got up before the
microphone and referred to themselves as "the average
black family" (and make no doubt about it; though the
affordable housing crisis faces all people its propa-
gation is racially based) struggling under the weight
of past failures, ud's and such, trying to keep their
family of five together, dad working northeast for
$9.50/hr just having got a raise after having been
hired on full time whereas before he'd been working
through a temp agency and you know damn well the
employer was paying the agency a damn sight more than
$9.50/hr, all of them living inshelters(people helping
people and such) going on and off now five years, and
i'm looking at rodney later and his son zachary and
the two others sleeping or despairing and we're
talking and i got no way to help him, thinking i
shoulda got up and spoke but what would i do but
berate these people again and i know they squandered
the money and there's little left in the kitty for ah,
and yes i know it's a regional/state/federal problem
and i got no hope to offer rodney and it doesn't seem
right to say if i had been incharge this would not
have happened or that the democrats ain't much better
than the republicans when it comes to helping poor
people these days and i just wanted to scream WHERE IS
THE MORAL OUTRAGE IN THIS CITY, IN THIS COUNTRY?
it was harder than normal getting to sleep last night.
tim connolly
ward 7
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