When thinking about the Saint Paul mayor 's race, let's be sure to focus on the real issues facing Saint Paul. I turly want the this race to focus on the future of our great city.
Below is a commentary on Mayor Kelly's budget that I submitted to the community newspapers and which was published in the Highland Villager. Hopefully, it will give you a sense of the issues facing the city. Happy Holidays! *************************** Saint Paul is a great city with a bright future. By investing in the future of our community, Saint Paul will remain a vital and vibrant place to live and to do business. In order to realize our full potential, we must maintain a high quality of life, create new and sustainable economic opportunities, and foster a strong sense of community. The city government plays an important role in creating the conditions that support private investment and ensuring the safety and security of the entire community. Over the past several months, the Saint Paul City Council rigorously reviewed the budget proposed by Mayor Randy Kelly. Unfortunately, the Mayor's budget comes up short. The council takes its budgetary responsibility seriously and we will attempt to fill the most pressing budget holes. The Mayor's budget proposal is flawed in several ways. First, the proposed budget is not sufficient to address the basic needs and expectations of the community. The Mayor is risking public safety by not adequately funding staffing at the 911 call center, and by not replacing police and firefighter positions. The Mayor's shortsighted budget does not provide enough code enforcement officers or licensing inspectors necessary to address problem properties or to adequately protect the health and safety of the public. Additionally, the parks and recreation system is underfunded, the city lacks planning and economic development capacity, and it is even a challenge to keep the streets maintained and the grass mowed. Second, the Mayor's budget proposal increased taxation by more that $3 million by adding street light maintenance to the right-of-way assessment. These assessments unfairly shift the tax burden to lower-valued homes, churches, and other nonprofit organizations. The right-of- way assessment is a taxing structure that benefits large commercial properties and high-valued homes by using front footage to calculate the bill rather than the dollar value of the property. Further, those properties that are exempt from property taxes, now are faced with a growing assessment bill. Third, the Mayor's budget proposal severely limits the city's ability to invest in economic development projects by shifting millions of dollars from the STAR program to pay off old debts instead of using these revenues for financing business or housing developments. Despite "holding the line" on property taxes for nearly a dozen years, the downtown office vacancy rate is at an unacceptably high 25 percent. This is after spending millions of dollars to convert excess office space into high-rise condominiums. Clearly, public investments in housing and business development are critical to our economy. The price of meeting the Mayor's short term goal to avoid raising taxes is to sacrifice millions of dollars of investment capital that would otherwise be used to fuel economic growth. Unfortunately, the options for addressing these flaws are severely limited by the Mayor's veto of the council's earlier attempt to increase the property tax levy by a very modest 2 percent. Try as we might, the lack of flexibility in the Mayor's budget will allow the council to provide only limited relief. As we look to the future, we cannot continue to let a rigid adherence to the ideology of fiscal conservatism overwhelm our responsibility to be fiscally prudent and to invest in the future of our great city. Lee Helgen Saint Paul City Councilmember - Ward 5 St. Paul City Hall/Courthouse Suite 320-A 15 W. Kellogg Blvd. St. Paul, MN 55102 651-266-8650 _____________________________________________ To Join: St. Paul Issues Forum Rules Discussion Email: [EMAIL PROTECTED] ____________________________________________ NEW ADDRESS FOR LIST: [email protected] To subscribe, modify subscription, or get your password - visit: http://www.mnforum.org/mailman/listinfo/stpaul Archive Address: http://www.mnforum.org/mailman/private/stpaul/
