Budget balancing requires us to look at some combination of increasing revenues and decreasing expenses. Most of the city's current expenses are not necessarily able to be reduced without jepordizing the financial rating of the city's bonds or its livability. These expenses include debt payments, Police and Fire departments, Schools, etc. Consequently the city needs to come up with ways to increase the tax base.
There are three things that reult in an increase in the city's property tax revenues: 1) Raising taxes which is already being done and has many negative consequences 2) Increasing values of the properties in the city. The city has no direct control over this 3) Increasing the number of properties that are taxable in the city. Since we are not able to grow in geographic size there are only limited opportunities at this. One way to increase the number of properties that are taxable is to upzone properties within 1/4 to 1/2 mile of the commercial corridors in the city. The city should enact a zoning code that embraces the concepts laid out in the Downtown East North Loop Master Plan. http://www.ci.minneapolis.mn.us/master-plans/downtown-east-north-loop/ These tenents of the plan include minimum massing and parking requirements as opposed to maximiums, limiting surface parking, encourging mixed use development, etc. This is a long term plan but has substantial benefits. For example, The Reserve, a condo project in the North Loop, began construction over a year ago and has since ceased. There was a recent Skyway News article about it. However, there was no mention of the fact that they had designed and begun construction of what was going to be a 12 story, 120 unit building. The North Loop Warehouse District Neighborhood Association opposed the project hieght, along with the HPC, and the project was eventually reduced to 8 or 10 stories (I can't recall off hand). The smallest units were listed at $260K or so which would mean approximately $3,250 in annual property taxes. Assuming that they only reduced it by 2 stories and that all of the units on those stories were the lowest value (I am sure they were not) that would be a net loss to the city of $78,000 ($260K value x 1.5% Residential Property Tax Rate x 20 Units) annually in todays dollars. Under the North Loop/Warehouse District Master Plan which had not yet been completed, the original building plan would have been allowed. Essentially that is a $78,000 annual annuity that the city would not receive due to zoning policies even though private development would have provided it. This particular project has stopped constuction for other reasons but I think that this example illustrates why upzoning could have a profound impact on property tax revenues. Upzoning would hopefully lead to more density along the commercial corridors making them more attractive business locations and consequently increase the taxable value of existing commercial properties. This also frees up more land for redevelopment than otherwise possible. Additional density drives efficiency in the transit system. Best of all this policy has no direct cost to the taxpayers in actual city outlays. I realize that some citizens may be opposed to drastic changes that may occur but a well thought out zoning ordinance could deal with many of the problems while encouraging growth and a more diverse city in terms of commercial activities and housing. Not to mention the alternative to growing our tax base seems to be reducing services while taxes continue to increase. I think we need to realize that Minneapolis is the central city in a major metro area and one implication of that means that the city must become more urbanized. I have more in depth recommendations on this but would like to hear the lists thoughts. Nick Frank North Loop REMINDERS: 1. Think a member has violated the rules? Email the list manager at [EMAIL PROTECTED] before continuing it on the list. 2. Don't feed the troll! Ignore obvious flame-bait. For state and national discussions see: http://e-democracy.org/discuss.html For external forums, see: http://e-democracy.org/mninteract ________________________________ Minneapolis Issues Forum - A City-focused Civic Discussion - Mn E-Democracy Post messages to: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Subscribe, Un-subscribe, etc. at: http://e-democracy.org/mpls
