HomeMy WebLinkAbout1995-01-10 TranscriptionJanuary 10, 1995
Budget Work Session
Page
January 10, 1995
Budget Work Session
6:00 PM
Council: Horow, Baker, Kubby, Lehman, Nov, Throg, Pigott (6:30 PM).
Staff: Arkins, Helling, Karr, Yucuis, Mansfield, O'Malley.
Tapes: 95-6, Side 2; 95-5, all; 95-7, Side 1.
Budget Discussion 95-6 $2
Atkins/ All set .... I would like to spend a good part of this
evening doing an overview .... We gave you a separate document,
Financial Trends Monitoring and many of the things I want to
talk about tonight have to do with our analysis from a
historical perspective of some of the financial trends that we
have experienced and then we will try to do some projections
based upon those trends .... indication of where I thinkwe will
be going in the next few years.
First of all, the budget as proposed, there are a number of
assumptions ..... 1-Assumes no freezes at least during the next
three year period. 2-We will lose Machinery and Equipment
revenue in accordance with some sort of a state plan .....
Kubby/ So, minus the 698 that we are losing plus some factor of the
reimbursement ....
Atkins/ We make the assumption that it will be phased out over a
period of time ..... 3- We have assumed that there are no new
general revenues from any source. Dealing with the sources
that we have available to us .... We will discuss the Police
Personnel Grant...later on ..... We have made no assumption
that there is any other major new general revenue that are
available to you other than those available through referendum
Throg/ ..... federal funding is going to decline. Might
for us to assume some reduction...with regard
funding.
it be wise
to federal
Atkins/ The federal funding that I see going away...likely to be
the Federal Transit Operating Subsidy. We have it budgeted at
the full amount..have to make decisions on that. We have not
figured into o~r operating budget federal monies
eubsfdizing any of our other operations .....
Aide ...... (4)- We assume no dramatic change in the Road Use
Tax although the Governor had called for and directed a review
of that fund ..... That fund is very healthy ..... (5)- We
Thisrepresents only areasona~oly accurate ~ans=lp~on of thelowa CIW coundl mee~ng ofJanuarylO, 1995,
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assume no change in tax policy by the state. Roll back, tax
rates, assessment policies and procedures we assume will
remain in place....... (6)- We have assumed that there will be
no major changes in pensions, s.s., public employee retirement
systems and that we adjusted for costs because these are
payroll related numbers ..... (7)- We have not assumed..that
the Tax Payers Rights Amendment will likely be up in front of
the legislature .... The Senate has already passed it ..... I
have no idea ..... important thing .... The Tax Payers Rights
Amendment limits all revenue, not taxes, but revenue ...... If
the Tax Payers Rights Amendment will to be approved as it now
stands it would allow us to increase revenue and thereby
spending that you might have in accordance with population
growth or inflation if it goes down ..... Something we have to
keep an eye on. I have to factored that into this .... (8)-
Most services are maintained at the current level of service,
staffing and support services-the costs. We continue to apply
technologywherever we can ..... alternate to hiring additional
staff. (9)- Use of our cash reserves during the three year
plan for the purposes of balancing the general fund budget.
You will notice the declining cash position during the three
year life of this budget. I am not overly concerned about
that .... But there is declining cash position. That has
probably a greater bearing upon bond ratings .... (10)- All of
our estimating is made with the assumption that we will
continue to negotiate opening and reasonably with our employee
groups ..... Note of caution with respect to the benefit
costs .... page 24 of FTMS .... benefits are growing
disproportionate to the cost of our payroll and it is
something that we have to keep an eye on. That percentage is
growing.
Kubby/ At one point I know that we had talked about .... where people
from the bargaining unit and management come together...
Arkins/ Labor Management Committees.
Kubby/ For us to call a meeting to talk about ideas for cost
containment...health care benefits...bargaining unit has some
specific ideas .... Let us initiate that discussion to help
contain those ....
Arkins/ ...our health care costs this year are going to be
better...than they have been for a long long time... reserves
are healthy... experience has been good...that is a big hunk
of the fringe benefit cost ..... Our reserve positions with
respect to our employee benefits remain healthy .... Your
This represents only a reasonably accurate tronsc~Ipt~on of the Iowa City council meeting of January 10, 1995.
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taxing authority...do have unlimited taxing authority with
respect to employee benefits ...... you have a limited amount
under the taxing authority under the 8.10. You can't afford
to hire but you can afford to pay the benefits ..... Our long
term historical trends are generally very satisfactory
...... However we are beginning to experience some short term
problems. The recent history is not as good as the long
term .....
EXPENDITURES.(SEE CHART #1). Your expenditures...are
controlled by eight factors. 1. Inflation ..... 2. Private
market influence.... 3. Collective bargaining ...... 4. Cost of
benefits ..... 5. Services you choose to extend .... 6. Services
you have no choice .... .issues of ADA ..... new school .....
obligation to improve road .... new expense in your budget
..... 8. Debt is mostly your control. . Bottom line question
with respect to expenditures is how ~' we fulfill our public
expectation within the resources that are being made
available.
Kubby/ Will you go through benefits that we self insure ....
Atkins/ Workers compensation is a state law and we self insure.
Police and fire pension is a state law and we are now
operating from our reserve position ..... over a period of time.
We have actuarialy taken care of our police and fir pension
obligation and therebywe do not have to tax for that now and
we are using that reserve to pay our over a number of years
..... It is not considered self insured. IPERS is not self
insured. Social security is not; life insurance is not. Health
insurance is. We pay a third party to administer for it but we
are self insured .... Two biggies with the greatest exposure...
is health insurance and workers comp ..... BC/BS administers it
for us. 7. Services in the general fund. That is
simply...fund that is most restrictive. You do not have the
taxing authority of a tax base to generate sufficient revenues
in that ..... You take your tax base times your tax cap, you
know what your available revenue is. Don't go any higher.
Kubby/ Why do we choose not to have more of our debt paid from the
debt service le~y so that it frees up more general fund money?
Atkins/ Our debt is from the debt service levy. We do certain
projects by cash.. ....
Kubby/ So all of our GO bonds are paid from the debt service f~nd.
But that is from the debt service levy?
Thlsrepreson~ only oreasonab~ aCcur~o ~ons~don of ~elowa CIty coun~l meedng of Januaw 10,1995.
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Arkins/ Yes, which is restricted .....
Kubby/
Nov/ I think we don't do all the worker's benefits through the
benefits levy .....
Throg/ Just as a point of argument .... reduce size of local
government ...cut staff ..... presumably it is within our
prerogative to cut services if we wanted to.
Atkins/ Oh, absolutely ......
REVENUES.(SEE CHART #2). Revenues, those that are available to
you. It is primarily limited in what you have to choose to
implement and those are substantially because of state law
regulating the taxes that you choose to levy. The tax base is
also regulated by the state...property tax is by state law,
sales tax is by state law....fees and charges .... must have a
direct benefit relationship to for what you choose to put that
particular fee and charge of. 3- Growth in revenues, notably
the base, is limited by some state authority .... have to ask
with respect to growth in revenues is does it grow at least
with inflation, does it grow with service demand ..... your own
policy interest ..... 4- Stability of the revenue. This is the
assured level of funding that you might have available to you.
I did a q~ick calculation of your general fund and 83% of the
money in the general fund is subject to some type of state or
federal regulation with respect to the rate, the base and the
growth ..... have about 17% discretionary revenues where you
can legitimately make the choice ....
Kubby/ At some point...where that 17% is.
Atkins/ I can show you....most of it is going to be recreation
fees, minor things ....
TOTAL ASSESSED AND TAXABLE VALUATION. (SEE CHART #3). I am
going to spend the time on the trends, kind of where we are
going. I think it is important for us to all understand these
numbers. (Refers to chart) ..... First column,...total assessed
valuation for that particular FY, includes new construction.
In the 11 FYs including the projection year, F¥96, that
assessed value has grown 58.32% for annualized growth rate of
about 4.7%. Commercial utilities .... about 61% residential,
39% is commercial values ..... grown 48.57%, annualized
increase of 4.26%..... commercial/industrial is taxed at 100%.
Thlsrepresente only 8reasonebly 8ccur~e ~8neg~don of ~elowa City council meeting ofdenuerylO, 1995.
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Kubby/
Page 5
Atkins/ Next column is residential value at 100% .... grown 65.1% for
an annualized growth rate of about 5%. Does include new
construction. Take Iowa law re: roll back. Do we all know how
it works .... ?
Horow/ ...prefer to go through it ....
Atkins/ Assume your home has assessed value of $100,000. State has
a policy on the rollback of values...rollback factor is based
on two things: 1-agricultural land values statewide and a
growth factor artificially imposed bythe state, 4%. They then
send us a number and the number this year is ...... take that
number times the assessed value and you get the taxable value.
You take the taxable value times the tax rate...let's say is
10, that house is going to pay $675.00 in city tax. Remember
of the property tax bill, 40% city, 40% schools and 20% county
in round numbers.
$100,000
..675074
67,500
X 10
$ 675,
Nov/ And this rollback factor applies to everybody?.
Atkins/ Only residential.
Nov/
Atkins/ We get that number eventually from the county .....
Throg/ Are these numbers in constant dollars or current dollars?
Atkins/ These are all current dollars.
Throg/ I take that to mean taxable value of land in Iowa City has
in fact been declining or at best remaining essentially stable
in constant dollars.
Atkins/ Stable .....
Throg/ Even though the amount of taxable stuff has been growing-
Atkins/ ..... In Fiscal 90 on your chart the rollback was at its
This represents only a reasonably accurata transcription of the Iowa City council mestlng of January 1 O, 1995.
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highest in the 11 year period ..... see fiscal 90...rollback was
.806384 ..... For fiscal 96 we are at .675074. We are at a 11
year low for rollback. The concern is that the rollback is a
trend is declining more rapidly than the offsetting growth in
new construction and value for our community.
Horow/ ...why did Karen say she wanted a higher number and why is
it bad to be at the 11 year low?
Atkins/ ~100,000 house-
Kubby/ ...you multiply the figure by 80% so rollback is a weird
term.
Arkins/ Your taxable value instead of $67,500
have got a higher number ..... generates
$675.
is $80,658 when you
$806 in revenue not
Kubby/
Atkins/ In Iowa law, it is all done in aggregate...total values ....
Lehman/ Have seen property values increase to counter balance ....
Arkins/ I don't agree with that anymore .... they are increasing and
we are losing ground fast .... The residential taxable value
(See Chart 3) has grown 53.8%...annualized rate of 4.67 ....
close to total assessed value. The total taxable value has
increased 53.4% ..... annualized rate of 4.7. During last 11
period inflation has averaged just...under 4% ..... all you are
doing is keeping pace. The concern is that our growth and
taxable values are Just keeping pace with inflation, slightly
ahead. But OUr growth and taxable value involved new
construction ..... if we were not having growth...we would begin
to fall behind... When you combine this with tax caps,
rollbacks, and proposed reduction in our tax base, M & E, plus
the state aid is now flat lining you can understand my
caution. Long term we are not bad. But it is the short term
that I have some concerns about.
I want to talk about the rollback specifically now. It has
declined steadily since fiscal 90 ..... now at .675 ...... It has
declined by 19.5% in value since that period of time...the
ability to provide for a tax base. That trend is Just a hair
short of 3% a year in decline .... your growth is automatically
wiped out by way of rollback ..... if our assessed value is
This represents only 8 reasonably accurate tranacdptlon of the iowa C;ty council meeting of Janumy 10, 1995.
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growing the way it is, we are financially healthy but
discretion with your ability to fund other programs and
policies is really severely limited. Note...trend in rollback.
F¥93 it lost 8.1%. F¥95 it lost 8.4%. Those were revaluation
years ..... this year...decline...1% ..... My concern. My concern
is F~97.
Horow/ Steve, why is that, the Jump year?
Atkins/ First we had a revaluation. We revalue every two years .....
If you don't teassees the state will come in' and apply an
equalization factor for you which I think is unfair because
then you are just across the board ..... We are making the
assumption in FY97 that we are in for another glitch
year ...... I am assuming we are going to have about a 7%
decline in the rollback factor in FY97.
Kubby/
Atkins/ Same house...taxable value this year .... 675 .... it will drop
to .626.
Nov/
Arkins/ We are going to have a revaluation year in there ..... Our 11
year average in residential growth has been 5%. Look at
residential value in FY96...assume at %5 at 11 history .....
out $20 million
Nov/
Arkins/ 5% on that year .... look at the trend in short
term...values growing...7% per year. I did the same arithmetic
and it comes out a wash. We gain no ground in residential tax
value for next year. To calculate it we have to grow 12.7% (in
residential values) FY97 to have 4.6% growth factor with the
rollback and all of that .....
Kubby/
Atkins/ Remember what that 12.7% does for you, it only keeps you
current.
Kubby/
Nov/
This represents only 8 reasonably 8ccumte tronscdpt~on of the Iowa City council meotJng of Januarf 10, 1996.
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Arkins/ Are you with me....
Nov/ Is your message then we have to go out and grow in commercial
and industrial property?
Arkins/ J am going to talk to you about that...state wants you to
do that ....
M & E. (SEE C~ART #4) State wants to take M & E out of our
commercial and industrial. Call this...facts about M & E. M &
E by definition you think of the big stuff. I have a list of
all the M & E in town .... Press Citizens printing press is $1.3
million in value. There are some others .... definition ...is
also subject to some q~estion because it may include computer
equipment. Everybody has got computer equipment. Our current
value for M & E is $53.6 million...taxes generated for the
General Fund are $693,000 a year or about 3.75% of the General
Fund tax base is M & E. Assuming a growth value .... in ten
year ...annualized number of close to $1 million if current
law ..... Cedar Rapids is 8.2% of their value ..... we are kind
of bunched together...Des Moines 3.5% ..... Governor's proposal
is to reduce over six years the M & E. They say they will
reimburse us on a declining schedule (See chart). Several
concerns. Will the state fulfill its commitment? They have not
to date on others.
Kubby/ Could be something that is put into law but not funded.
Atkins/ Absolutely.
Nov/
Atkins/ I got some information from Secretary or Commissioner
Lyons .... here is the states thinking...as M & E is
eliminated, Iowa wilt become more attractive for commercial
and industrial property and they believe commercial and
industrial property purchases ..... will expand ..... State
predicts there will growth in commercial and industrial
property purchases to offset 2/3's of the money that is lost
and the state will only have to make up 1/3 .....
Pigott/ Growth in what?
Atkins/ Commercial and industrial property.
Throg/ How does that result in increased state revenues?
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Arkins/ Jim, that is one of the arguments ..... if you are going to
do this property tax exemption, then do it byway of a state
income tax credit ..... They are simply saying property tax is
the most onerous tax, we are going to take it away .... your
communities will grow .... State says that we as cities will
experience a net increase in tax revenues in the first five
years. I don't believe that...
Kubby/ Go back ....
Atkins/ Only 30% taxed now.
Kubby/ ...look at next five years...did that happen in our
community ..... Use this as a case study .....
Atkins/ The question...do you want more commercial and industrial
growth in your community ..... We have a shortage of industrial
land. How do we pursue industrial land purchases for the very
revenue the state wants to restrict ..... The grand plan .....
is that the state, through its tax policies, is clearly
dictating how we will grow in accordance with their plan. I
don't have any doubt in my mind. The loss of M & E troubles me
but it is a greater loss over control , self determination
disappears. What if we don't want to do that ......
Throg/ I don't understand...why we would want to encourage new land
purchases that would ordinarily result in additional M & E
revenue but now won't?
Atkins/ The state is saying...we want commercial and industrial to
grow and that the M & Eo..you gain benefit of that big new
building as a property tax base, commercial tax and that is at
100%. What a great thing we are doing for you. The biggest
beheficiary, we gain certain property tax .... state gains the
most, income tax and sales tax ..... By lifting out that M & E,
they say this is what will happen ..... we are in a bind.....
The question that you will eventually have to answer is what
ar~ you going to do about commercial and industrial
development as a matter of policy. The state says M & E will
be made up by other classes of property .....
CHANGE TAPE TO REEL 95-5 SIDE i
Atkins/ As long as they keep applying rollback factors you don't
gain anything.
Kubby/
This represents only e reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City council meeting of Januaw 10, 1995.
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January 10, 1995 . Budget Work Session Page 10
Atkins/ I don't see how those numbers can work out .... as a city
council you are losing control over the ability to make
decisions on what you want the development character of your
community to be .....
Kubby/ ..... Repeat why you have come to the conclusion .....
Atkins/ State takes away M & E tax. The state says that we are
going to take that revenue away from you ..... you will still
generate the tax income from those buildings. How do you make
up the difference in that loss? The state says you will have
more commercial and industrial development occur, less the M
& E portion of it, it will consume the land and you will be
able to tax it at 100%.
Pigott/ You have to follow that principle to make up for the loss
revenue .... choices are excluded?
Arkins/ For residential purposes...just to stay current if M & E
goes away- we would have to build in the next ten year period
1,100 new homes at $100,000 each. You would have to build 100
homes a year just to keep current .....
Kubby/ Cost of services gets higher and higher...
Arkins/ Schools, police, fire...that is the states plan. I don't
think much of it.
Kubby/
Arkins/ We have built in a 3% growth factor. If they take away M &
E .... your growth rate would have to go up even more to keep
current.
Kubby/ Can we put those numbers together when the M & E went from
100 to 30...the five years after that. Document the two years
before and the five years after so we can see changes .....
Nov/
Arkins/ Additionally what has happened is the state...who says they
are going to reimburse us for M & E ....
STATE POPULATION ALLOCATION (SEE CHART #5). The state
population allocation F¥88 was $632,000. FY96 same thing
...because they are not giving you the money. The state has
subjected all of these things to appropriations .... throws the
This represents only a ~easonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City council meeting of January 10, 1995.
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whole thing up for grabs every year ....... take Personal
Property Replacement ..... Total revenues for the state, as a
percentage of your General Fund budget use to be 4.9. We
'estimate 3.7 .... our General Fund budget ..... Trouble with
their policy of telling local governments how they should grow
through tax policy, promising certain reimbursements, and then
it doesn't happen.
TAX LEVIES AVAILABLE (SEE CHART #8) Take you through...
revenues ...idea of what we currently use .... 8.10 levy, $8.10
per $1,000 in taxable value. You can use that for any
legitimate government purpose. It is the primary levy of the
General Fund ..... grows by way of increase in taxable value.
It is a maximum, can't go beyond unless we declare an
emergency need .... you can initiate the levy, that is your
call. Transit, can only use it for transit .... grows byway of
taxable value. Employee Benefits, no upper limit, council
initiated, pays for employee benefits, the employers share,
you must be at the 8.10 before you can exercise that option.
Kubby/ How much more would that levy be if we used that for 100%
our benefits?
Arkins/ ...close to that except for police and fire .... Transit Levy
is .95 ..... police and fire...we don't have to levy that .....
Horow/Are we allowed to use reserve that we built up for something
other than this?
Arkins/ No.
Horow/.
Arkins/
Kubby/ Do we have to give them money every year to just that one
time?
Arkins/ We.pay eve~ year...about 18% of payroll.
Don Yucuis/ Police and Fire, the employer contribution for that is
actuarialy figured and currently it is about 18.4 and the new
rate is about 17.66 starting July 1.
Kubby/ So we had a big cash reserve ....
Atkins/ ...We had to pay the state a whole bunch of money and we
This represents only a ransan~b~y accurate ~'anscrlptlon of the Iowa City council meeting of January 10, 1995.
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had to send them basically our investments .... we had a 12%
insurance contract, we kept that ..... Kevin and Don deserve a
lot of credit for it.
Yucuis! The employee benefits, we tax for about 93.5% of the
general fund employers share of the contribution...IPERS,
health insurance, life insurance.
Kubby! And other 7% comes out of the general?
Yucuis/ Correct.
Kubby/ Do you'know what that dollar amount of that 7% is?... Why
aren't we doing 100% of the benefits...?
Atkins/ Have to leave a little in the 8.10 to keep it at 8.10 .....
Yucuis/ That is the way we have been doing it. Been a declining
amount over the years.
Kubby/ ..... 7% is additional discretionary moneys ....
Atkins/ As well as your Tort Liability Levy .... we will be talking
about that later.
Yucuis/ Numbers are approximately $185,000.
Atkins/ Library levy grows by way of taxable value, maximum levy,
must be voter approved, used to support library operations. It
is at .27 Debt Service grows by way of taxable value, upper
limit is determined by property value, you cannot tax beyond
5% of assessed value. We are well within that. Council
initiated and can only be used for debt payments.
Horow/
Atkins/
¥ucuis/ Our max is about $~0 million.
Atkins/ I think we are out about .... 20-23% of that. we are well
within. Hotel Motel Tax .... growth based on room rates of
local hotels, maximum 7%, voter approval...referendum you
define what you want to use the moneys for....any specific
purpose you want. Your call.
Kubby/ .... how long are we obligated to live under those
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percentages, either ethically or legally?
Atkins/ Legally...I would have to ask for an opinion on that
because I don't recall that being on the ballot ......
Kubby/ You should check on that and what that means to us.
Atkins/ About $400,000 a year.
TAX LEVIES NON-VOTED (SEE CHART #6) Other things that are out
there for you. Current law, 8.10. if you want to have a
contract for use of a bridge...pretty straight forward
One that I will mention to you later on...is the Avia;ig~
Authority.. .... now a general fund...need to think about some
option for that .... all of these involve increase of property
tax but they do give you a few options. The Liability,
Property and Self Insurance Tort .... also explain that. Then
you have a Non-Voted Special. If we have an emergency we may
levy up to .27 in addition to the 8.10.
Pigott/ What constitutes an emergency?
Arkins/ I am not sure ....
Yucuis/ I contacted the state on that and there is really no
definition of how that can occur. There is no rules that say
you have to define an emergency...I was told it can be done at
your discretion.
Atkins/ TAX LEVIES VOTED (SEE CHART #7) Finally, the voted levies
.... Support for the library ....
Horow/ Between the tax levies voted and the tax levies non-voted,
whole concept of flood mitigation and river basin planning
..... along with state, other states, multiple counties within
the state, to look at the Iowa river. Where would that money
come from.
Atkin~/ General Fund right now.
Horow/
Arkins/ I doD't see anything up there that will do that for you
under the voted.
Yucuis/ I don't think there is anything there, Susan.
This represents only a reasonably accurate trarlscdpt]on of ~e Iowa City council meedng of J~nuary 10, 1985.
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Horow/ Emergencies....is mitigation.
Arkins/ I will give you more details. I found this out late this
afternoon...letter for the Corp and the Corp now wants to do
a study...The study will cost about $800,000, they want
$400,000 from us. .... They are going to contact other
communities ..... That generally su/~marizes revenues and I
want to move to expenditures.....overview .... The short term
trend that I am most concerned about is your discretion is
continuing to close and the state is closing the window to
allow you to make local decisions and yet they have an
expectation of a state wide economic policy that they want
..... communities to fulfill ...... you are trapped ....
Throg/
Atkins/ I don't have any doubt it is a very deliberate policy on
the apart of the state ....
Throg/
Kubby/ So is there any talk about income tax again.
Atkins/ NO..oincome tax...schoo1 districts ....
Overview...Budget Policy Memo...summarizes a lot of the
issues...something to thi~kabout .... Page 49 in your Budgets,
our total General Fund Expenditures from F¥95 to FY96 are
proposed to increase 2.4%...$25,852,000 and $26,586,000. Our
expenditure proposal for the General Fund is 2.4%. F¥96-97
6.5; 97-98 3.7% ..... Generally speaking we try to keep those
at or about inflation ..... Not off by more than 1%.
Kubby/ 1% equals $80,000?
Atkins/ I am doing expenditures...for each penny of property tax is
$14,000 ..... F¥96-97 there is an aberration that you need to
be made aware of. During that year we will have 27 pay
periods. We operate on a cash basis. Every seven to eight
years that occurs and it just happens to occur in that F¥. We
pay by hours worked. When we submit a payroll for an employee
...8 hrs. per day...paid every two weeks .... a year is made up
of 52.14 weeks, add a couple of leap years in there and you
get 27 pay periods ......
NOTABLE CHANGES IN GENERAL FUND EXPENDITURES (SEE CHART #9)
Most notable new items in the General Fund budget ..... I have
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January 10, 1995 Budget Work Session Page 15
listed on the chart. Personnel for the monthly billing is
about $100,000 ..... General Fund Subsidy to Transit is growing
dramatically and it is taking up your available revenue at a
more rapid pace than your other services. Risk Management
position is proposed to be financed out of our reserves .....
PCD Administration...Near South Side .... Forestry has a new
position... Police Crossing Guard ...... We cannot get people
to serve as crossing guards ...... Dramatically proposing to
increase the compensation ..... We have $30,000 to repay the
Weather Alert Sirens .... Mercer Park Pool contract with the
school district..... each year for the last five years they
have exercised their right to decline the use at Mercer Park
Baker/
Atkins/ They have now reached the floor .... every year ....
Pigott/
Atkins/ The accumulative affect is now $40,000. This year is
another $10,000.
Nov/ How are they using fewer hours at the pool and teaching more
children to swim? I know the population of the school has gone
up.
Atkins/ Terry reviews that .... We will make a note and check with
Terry on how he accounts for that. Parks and soccer equipment
.... Library.... General utility increases .... and the state
has changed the protocol on our communication center dispatch
which means new software which means we have to spend $60,000.
..... This one is a state mandated ....
Throg/ Unfunded mandates ....
Atkins/
Kubby/ Will you say those numbers again for our utility rate
increases?
Atkins/ Water, sewer, gas, and electric is about $75,000 in the
general fund. Postage, telephone, about $75,000. We charge
ourselves for water and sewer.
Kubby/ We need to start conserving water ....
This represents only a reasonably accurate lzanscrlptlon of the Iowa City council meetlng of January 10, 1995.
W8011095
January 10, 1~95 . . Budget Work Session Page 16
Atkins/ Our conse~vation program last week ....
Kubby/When we talk about Transit increases in the subsidy it would
be helpful to me if they were split apart on para-transit and
others ..... I would like that separated out.
Arkins/ Okay, we will pull that out. I will make a note of that.
Kubby/And maintenance charge back would be interesting to look at
for transit .....
Arkins/ %-INCREASE BY PROGRAM F¥95 TO FY96 (SEE CHART #10). This is
the increase by program...your budgets will show that ....
Clerk has an election ..... Treasury, monthly billing. Risk
Management we are paying back our reserve .... PCD
Administration is the $50,000 consultant fee .... Neighborhood
Services is $25,000 projects to neighborhoodsgrant program we
are working on ..... Crime Investigation, I don't know. I will
have to check for you.
Kubby/
Atkins/ Community Development Non-Grant is the moneys that we
contribute to the General Fund for the operation of the CDBG
Program and last year...flood money...part time staff ....
Nov/ What is risk management?
Arkins/ $200,000 transfer which causes it to almost double.
Experience in payout in risk management in the las~ couple of
years drew down that cost. We need to replace those moneys.
Kubby/ What' about HIS?
Arkins/ I will check that one ..... Don, make a note on HIS
Administration.
Baker/
Nov/ We added inspectors.
Atkins/ Housing Authority. That is Assisted Housing. That is not
shown on this. Forestry is a new position. Park has a lot to
do with soccer fields ....
Baker/
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WS011096
January 10,. 1995 . Budget Work Session Page 17
Arkins/ These are estimates .... this is FY95-96. So if you were
comparin~ what we are doing now to what we are proposing to do
HorQw/ How did we decrease 19% in landfill?
Arkins/ Probably because we are not going to build a landfill cell
this year...
Baker/ FY96...more consultant work done?
Atkins/ ...... I didn't put anything in for it. They are'going to
have to ask you if they want more money.
Baker/
Arkins/ ...... You can check on what my reductions were. They also
asked for several staff positions. I took those out .... Have
to pull the notes on that one ......
Baker/ (can't hear)
Atkins/ If you are going to put money into that. I am going to tell
-you when the Library time comes, that even if the referendum
were to pass I don't know how you are going to staff it ....
Kubby/ HIS Administration...
Yuouis/ HIS Administration..... We had one of the secretarial
positions originally budgeted in Housing Inspection and Doug
moved' that position to HIS Administration....
Atkins/ Reassigned an employee...We will pull that and give you a
better number on the thing.
¥ucuis/ Percentage wise it is going to be different percentages ....
Arkins/ We will prepare that for you.
Yucuis/ Landfill...in F¥95 we had some transfers to CIPs and in
FY96 we just have transfers to the reserve .... which is why
there is a reduction in that budget.
Kubby/ How come Wastewater is so low?
Atkins/ Bigger base.
This reproseats only a reasondoiy accurate trmscrlptlon of the Iowa City council meeting of Joaumy 10, 1995.
WS011095
January 10, 1995 Budget Work Session Page 18
Spend a couple of minutes explaining this to you and how you
can use this thing. The FTM is to assess our overall financial
strength ..... and allow us to use that historical information
to our advantage .... What I would hope to accomplish at some
time in the future is that we will give you this document and
then we will trend what we are proposing to you so you will be
able to see that oh, that is not out of thequestion .... some
sort of a spending pattern... Tell you where you are doing
okay and alert you to your problem areas...(FTMS) Page 9-10
Intergovernmental Revenues...area we have concerns about ....
We state there is a positive trend in University Fire Contract
.... Road Use Tax we do fairly well at ....
Kubby/ Would it be worth our while in 95 to get a mid census count?
Arkins/ We t~lked about that. It is an expensive proposition,
$50,000-80,000 ..... I would like to have it for a topic of
discussion sometime but I am not so sure .... State Aid... is
a negative .... Intergovernmental Revenues, of our total net
revenues, is declining. That means it has to be made up
somewhere else.
Kubby/ .... t~inking hard about when there are opportunities like
when there is a Crime Bill to make sure that our policies
aren't dictated by that ....
Atkins/ ...I think we made a mistake several years ago by using
federal revenue sharing to subsidize that operation because
that just compounded our problems ....
Arkins/ (Fire) Contract was put together is late 50s or-it is an
old contract and it is a square footage contract...formula ....
easy for them... University, what they do that we don't. You
have a double obligation...to tax and to spend. University
goes to the state to secure appropriation for their
operations. The tax policy is not something they have to
discuss .... has a great bearing on the kinds of decisions that
you all have to make .....
Kubby/ As our city grows won't that formula with the University be
less of a percentage ....
Arkins/ Might ....
¥ucuis/ Part of the percentage involves city owned buildings and
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WS011096
January 10, 1995 . Budget Work Session
Page 19
square footages .... and if we don't build city owned buildings
in bigquantities then the percentages stay about the same ....
It is city owned buildings and University owned buildings and
you have total tax exempt square footage ....
Arkins/ About 25% of Fire Department budget.
Nov/ Why is it Just city owned buildings?
Atkins/ This one definitely ain't broken.
Horow/ Took out FEMA...increase in 94 would be still sizable or....
Arkins/ I would have to go back and calculate that for you but it
would be down...important thing about this number is the
trend. It is declining. That is the thing you have to watch.
Kubby/ You suggest we don't put money into the Fire Equipment
Reserve and I am concerned about that ....
Arkins/ In year 2008 we are going to have to replace that aerial
truck .... We can't afford to set aside that kind of cash ....
We will borrow. We have plenty of borrowing capacity...
Kubby/ Costs us more in the long run.
Atkins/ Yes .... Transit we do it also .... you can buy a fire truck
on your initiate. But busses .... makes it subject to
referendum ..... We have expenditure indicators (page 18) ....
Page ~2, Employee Per Capita
Baker/ (Can't hear)
Arkins/ I don't know if any other cities keep the records the way
we do this.... Waterloo is a town of similar size. Waterloo
has 120 police officers. We have 59. They have a transit
system is probably half of what ours is ..... We provide a far
superior transit service than the City of Waterloo ..... I
don't want us to be held to that standard ..... Important thing
is if you will look at the trend, it has not changed
'dramatically ..... Benefits, Page 23...trend is the
growth .... biggest thing is the jump in the proportion of our
.personnel costs ....
Kubby/ We should take the initiative and say let's sit down and
brainstorm...contain costs.
This represents only a reason~ly accurate b'ansc~ption of the Iowa City council meeting of January 10, 1995.
WS011095
January 10, 1995 . Budget Work Session Page 20
Arkins/ We have that underway right now with Firs ....
Kubby/ This is something...working together .... high motivation on
both parties....
Atkins/ It is going to helpful to USo..
¥ucuis/ Page 37, typo, 2rid paragraph, end of first sentence, 1995
should be 1985.
Kubby/ Page 27 about Fund Balances ..... What percentage do we need
in F¥96 to meet this need? What percent or dollar amount?
Atkins/ The dollar amount chart in your budget-
¥ucu%s/ Page 27 of the budget.
CHANGE TAPE TO REEL 95-5 SIDE 2
Kubby/ Shortfall in receipts.
Yucuis/ That is it.
Kubby/ What else have we spent this money on ...... In the past five
years what is the dollar amount we have spent above and beyond
that fourth quarter payroll. Do we have that? Is there
anything else we spent out of that...? What else do we spend
from this cash balance? We are doing the first quarter of next
FY payroll. What else over the last five years have we spent
this money on?
Arkins/ The flood ....
Yucuis/ The remodel....
Atkins/ The third paragraph of fund balances in the FTMS.
Restricted fund balance is the total of the cash balances of
debt service, employee benefits, Road Use Tax, and Federal
Revenue Sharing as well as a number of other smaller accounts.
That is unrestricted because you pay those moneys into it and
you can use them for other purposes...We have traditionally,
by our own policy, restricted how we use them.....
Kubby/...I am suggesting that we work backwards .... on average of
last five years we have spent X amount of money out of that
cash balance for .... and create what we want that cash balance
to be.
Thls represents only a reasonably accurate trens~ptlon of the Iowa City council meeting of January 10, 1996.
W$011096
January 10, 1995 . Budget Work Session
Page 21
Atkins/' . .... Go back to
Balances .... it will
balance the budget.
Page 26 in your budget...under Fund
decline because we are using cash to
Kubby/ Is the Pure Fund Balance the same as the Unrestricted Cash
Balance....? On Page 26 do those figures include the next's
years first quarter?
Yucuis/ No. The Pure Fund Balance is after we back out reserves for
park land acquisition, fire equipment reserve-all of those
reserves ..... And using that Pure Fund Balance, that cash
balance, we say we are going to be able to have that on hand
to pay the first quarter amount revenues less expenses. It is
not factored into this number yet ....
Nov/
Why are we allowing this to go down this far because that
won't cover your shortage of funds by the time we get to FYP8
Atkins/ One of the reasons we are allowing it to go down is to pay
for that aberration in the payroll ..... 2-During the course of
the FY we spend 98.5%. We will be making adjustments during
the course of the year that we can anticipate. We budget 100%
of payroll, our turnover rate is about 5%, those are means by
which we replenish the reserve ..... We know that in the course
of next year that about 30 employees will quit....I have those
30 employees budgeted fully. Secondly, we know from experience
that wh~le we budget 100% of an expenditure our internal
controls are such that we will probably spend closer to 98.5%
..... another savings. At the end of the FY that is transferred
immediately to the fund balance ..... These numbers are our
best estimates...but I suspect a tad bit low...
Kubby/ ...... Is that the Pure Fund Balance or do you have another
contingency fund?
Atkins/ We have a contingency account of $250,000 that is strictly
for contingency .... and that usually involves....$140,000 for
Police cruisers but those came in at $145,000. We are still
going to buy the police cruisers. We will transfer when the
time comes $5,000 out of the contingency to cover that ....
.$50,000 to fundthe Library architect study .... We trend these
things and track these things ..... some of the accounts we will
spend more than 100% and in May of every year we do a
comprehensive budget adjustment ..... I just authorize those on
my own ..... The budget number we don't exceed the bottom line.
This represents only a reasonably accurate t~mtscrlption of the Iowa City council meeting of Janumy 10, 1996.
W8011096
January 10, 1995 . Budget Work Session
Page 22
Lehman/
Atkins/ .... Just two weeks ago we just finished the final flood
paperwork ..... And we have reimbursed ourselves for those
expenses.
Nov/ My concern. o.percentages are going down ..... I am concerned. I
don't think 10% (in the Pure Fund Balance) is enough.
Atkins/ I think that number will probably be closer to 12%. I am
not overly concerned about that ........ F¥97 is going to be an
oddball year...big hit we are going to get on the taxable
value.
Kubby/ F¥98 proposed Pure Fund Balance of 2.9 and you subtract
today's shortfall in receipts because of that first
quarter...you don't end up with much of a cushion ....
Atkins/ Probably have to...other reserve accounts and use them
temporarily .... We have to pay them back .... We will have to go
to those .... moneys will be replenished ..... We don't want to
break up investments either ....
Baker/ (Can't hear)
Arkins/ ..... 110% policy internally. Marian needs to buy a new
desk .... we authorize her to purchase that desk but from
within her operating budget she has to put up another $100
from somewhere else .... If for some reason she cannot cover
that expense and that rarely happens .... we will take it from
contingency .... That rarely rarely happens .... and that
contingency is almost invariably a new item .....
Baker/ (Can't hear)
Atkins/ The departments manage their own budgets. We track them for
them.....
Baker/
Arkins/ Our budgeting is such, we prepare the budgets for the
departments by way of our own computer projections. The
departments, then, amend them ..... based on trends ..... The
departments are all on-line .... .we print everything up for
them .... they put together the amendments.
Kubby/ I had a question about Page 29-30 .... liquidity. Does this
This represents only a reasonably eccurate trmmcrlptlon of the Iowa City council meeting of January 10, 1995.
WSO 11099
January 10,-1995 . Budget Work Session Page 23
mean we are having less money in long term investments .... ?
Yucuis/ What it is showing you...we don't have a lot of
liabilities. We really don't have that many payables out
there that affect the city ....
Atkins/ .....
Kubby/ I don't understand this overlapping debt.
Atkins/ Overlapping debt is an issue that applies to the community
in general ..... If there were significant debt on the part of
the county and the schools, it overlaps our debt. The bond
rating house would say wait a minute ....
Kubby/ .....
Atkins/ They evaluate all of the debt in the community .....
Horow/ ...TIF that Kirkwood has ....
Arkins/
Yucuis/ Where the TIF shows up is our taxable value is decreased by
the amount of the TIF value and that is a pretty significant
number. I think it is $11 million in FY94 and the city has a
part of that TIF ....
Horow/
Arkins/ That was an operational issue .....
Nov/ Elastic Tax Revenues...Hotel Motel Tax belong on that page?
Page 11-
Arkins/ Page 11-12. I guess it could be because the base is
determined by room values which are subject to increases in
cost of that particular industry .... It could be. I can't think
of a reason why it isn't .....
Kubby/ You outline in here that one possibility is a sales tax ....
Atkins/ A wheel tax is usually a flat fee...
Kubby/ What are other possibilities?
Arkins/ An income tax is an elastic revenue. Sales tax-
This represents only s reasonably accurate tranecdptlon of the Iowa City council meetlng of January 10, 1995.
WS011095
January 10, 1995 . . Budget Work Session Page 24
Yucuis/ Utility tax...In Illinois it is a tax on telephone,
electricity, gas. It is a significant local revenue source.
Kubby/ Franchise Fee with IIGE....
Horow/
Atkins/ You have existing r.o.w agreements with IIGE ..... That was
in '86 that that was passed. If fiber optics wanted to use our
r.o.w., can we charge them that fee to use that. We could
probably charge them the fee for use of the r.o.w. but nothing
based upon the income generated from that. That is what you
w~nt.
Horow/ What I wanted to know is could we charge them for use of the
r.O.Wo
Atkins/ Franchise with cable ....
Horow/
Helling/ Telephone companies, we are doing some research on that
..... because of pending federal legislation on
telecommunications that is kind of iffy. What we have done
some checking .... I don't know to what extent we can add a
franchise fee but feds are right in the middle of that ....
Kubby/ We should remember that...next franchise with IIGE and
demand at least 3%....
Baker/ (Can't hear)
Atkins/ I assumed that you wanted that (sales tax) scheduled as a
separate item. I can certainly roll that into the budget ....
would rather have you get through the budget and deal with
that later on ......
Nov/ I want to talk to the county, Coralville and everybody
Arkins/ There is nothing built into this budget that has any
bearing on the sales tax... I just need to take some time to
prepare that. The law has been rewritten and I just need to
bone up on it. Anything else on FTMS-
Next thing I want to do is go to your budget document and step
you through our Enterprise Funds. Page 97, Parking Fund. I am
just going to do a cursory analysis review of these things
Thlsrepreson~ only areasonably accur~e ~,z$cdp~onof ~elowa City coun~l mea~ngofdanuary10,1995.
W$O11095
January 10, 1995 Budget Work Session Page 25
keeping in mind that you all will recall we need to get the
General Fund decisions kind of behind us because that affects
our obligations to the state ...... We need to have the General
Fund nailed ..... When it comes to enterprise funds you have far
greater time and flexibility.
Kubby/ HOW come proposed budget isn't on parking? There isn't a
line for what the proposed budget...from the department.
Atkins/ Probably because they didn't change anything.
Kubby/ Is that true throughout the whole document?
Yucuis/ The Enterprise Funds are a little
don't have that in these Enterprise
requests~
bit different and we
Funds, the department
Atkins/ I can.pull those up for you and we can run-
Kubby/ We used to get those.
Atkins/ For some reason we pulled those out and I don't have a good
reason for you.
Kubby/ I would like to look at those.
Atkins/ We will print up something. Parking Fund..revenues are
flat. We don't see any dramatic change in the receipts. There
is a decline in the operating reserve position ..... Page 98
Improvement reserve in the middle remains very hea'lthy... a
little growth built into that. That money is available to
you...question...wi11 be how much cash, if any, do you want to
put towards the next parking project. That is your call .....
Kubby/ Is it legitimate to use this kind of balance for encouraging
increased riders...?
Atkins/ .... other than in some extreme cases, you have broad
latitude to do pretty much what you want. Your discretion in
the General Fund is very limited .... as long as you meet...the
legal obligations you hawe to debt ....
Kubby~
Atkins/ The bond reserve of $951,000 meets the bond covenants.
Yucuis/ Yes it does on the existing revenue bonds.
Thlsrepresen~ only areasonablyeccumtetmn$cdptlon of thelowa CtW ooun~l meot~ng of Januaw 10,1996.
WS011096
January 10, 1995 Budget Work Session Page 26
Arkins/ So the cash you see under FY96 is truly cash that you can
use it for other projects. Your policy has been for years that
Parking will pay for itself and you have chosen recently to
subsidize Transit through that ....
Baker/ ...physical improvements on the ramps .... advertising .... is
that included?
Arkins/ That would come out of that Parking Renewal and Improvement
Reserve. We have a schedule ..... In the next three years we
normally would have transferred $260,000 per year, I am
r~ading from an old memo to you all...to substantiate the
$90,000. If you read down under Transfers, $170,000 a year is
going into the Improvement Reserve. $90,000 is going into
Transit subsidy. Joe says that in the next-We have $500,000 is
repairs scheduled...over next 5-6 years for Transit .... for
parking ramps....
Yucuis/ We use that fund. Every other year we do the major repairs
at the existing ramps.
Arkins/ We did about $200,000 last year .....
Baker/ (Can't hear)
Arkins/ It is not included to me knowledge. Joe did not put
together a budget for that item specifically.
Kubby/ If we want to do it we take it from the ending balance of
the Parking Renewal and Improvement-
Atkins/ Take if from there if you like .... I know exactly what you
are talking about...do some things in the ramp to spiff it up.
We will have to check. I don't recall what Joe's budget was to
do that .....
Lehman/ We talked about it ....
Atkins/ You certainly indicated your interest in the thing.... It
is not something that cannot be accommodated fairly easily ....
I am summarizing these Enterprise Funds for you.
Wastewater, Page 100 ..... only have the one rate adjustment.
There is an accumulation of cash .... that grows from the FY95
estimate ...to almost $3 million in FY98.... That improves
that cash balance by about $1 million. We did not put any
other major adjustments in that one or Page 102, Water.
This represents only a reasonably aCcurate transcription of the Iowa City ~ounc[I meeting of January 10, 1995.
WS011095
January 10, 1995 . Budget Work Session
Page 27
Kubby/ How many years do we have left '85 $40 million bond?
Atkins/ '86. 20 in round numbers.
Yucuis/ (Year) 2012.
Kubby/ Concerned about that kind of a trend...
Atkins/ We can only refinance once and we are done ..... and we did
that and we saved about $3.5 million ....
Throg/ Karen's q~estion has to do with overlapping funds.
Arkins/ We are done with that. That schedule is fixed .... The point
at which you choose to overlap it with some new debt is a call
strictly that you will have to make ....
Horow/ Don't we look at the overall amount?
Arkins/ ...water and wastewater debt is not governed by General · Obligation standards ....
Horow/ Wastewater Treatment Operation. Where do we now see the
charges this department must charge itself when it uses the
City Atty's office?
A~kins/'I am sure that is...in Services and Charges .... Personal
services are people. Commodities are commodities and Services
and Charges are the things that we contract for and we charge
ourselves. City Arty-we can give you those numbers. Capital
Outlay is capital outlay.... One thing we want to correct at
bottom of Page 102- We show endinq balance in Water
Depreciation & Improvement Reserve. That-is a separate reserve
...See $56,515- across the board you need to add $1.146
million because we didn't show that transfer where we pay
ourselves back.
Yucuis/ We used some of this money in this fund to pay for the
~ondemnation. $1,146,100 oa~e out of this fund and-
Atkins/ Important thing is you can read your operating position in
FY98 is at $2 million and your Improvement Reserve is going to
be at $1.6- So your cash position within the Water Fund is
excellent ..... where it says $464,5- That should read $1.6
million. So you add the two together you have a better
perspective on the cash positions on the Water Fund. Okay.
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W$011095
January 10, 1995 . Budget Work Session
Page 28
Yucuis/ On Personal Services in the Water, we show two meter
readers and that is going to be corrected to 1.5 if we do in
fact go with the monthly billing ..... should only be 1.5 being
proposed ....
Arkins/ Page 103-104 Refuse and Landfill Operations.
Throg/ Hold on-If we are showing such a large ending balance in
both of these...Why would we want to hire new staff and pay
for them out of user fees? Why no draw down on the ending
balances?
Atkins/ You may do that...I heard you say...accumulate cash... If
you wanted to finance some of the staff from these numbers,
the answer is yes, we can do that and that would reduce those
numbers .... Your observation is correct-
Throg/ What we see in front of us does not include paying off new
debt for the water system?
Atkins/ No.
yucuis/ Not the big one. It includes some in there to reimburse us
for the money for the condemnation. That is in there.
Atkins/ We only built in what we knew we had obligated .....
Refuse and Landfill (Page 103-104) have similar issues ....
have a lot of pending things out there ..... Refuse...got a rate
adjustment built in ..... .cardboard...I need to give you all of
that...a package. Landfill is financially secure except...is
this transfer station business that is kicking around by a
private hauler .... DNR..not being aggressive enough. They don't
have rules and regs to govern this independent transfer
business which would divert from out landfill loads of
volume... That means the whole landfill operation is going to
have to be readjusted .... I don't know all of those
implications until the DNR decides something. On the 17th we
have a meeting in Des Moines to try to figure out what is
going to happen...We are part of the ECCOG's Plans that
governs how we are going to run the landfill ...... We have a
private hauler who wants to build a transfer station and he
wants to go out and market the transfer station. The transfer
station will be marketed to all the other communities that use
our landfill ..... If those com~unities chose to go to that
transfer station, he intends to take their garbage, charge
them something and take that garbage out of state to another
landfill. That means our landfill which has an annual volume
This represents only a reasonably acmJ~ate h'anscdptlon of the Iowa City council roasting of January ~0, 1996.
WS011095
January 10, 1995 o . Budget Work Session Page 29
of say 70,000 tons will drop in accordance with our loss of
customers. The DNR says we are still obligated for the
reduction in percentage at the landfill ..... you are obligated
for what goes to that transfer station because you are part of
the regional plan .... baloney...not fair to us .... If we are
going to be held obligated for it then...think...about
policies...to govern the landfill ..... We have said...we will
assume the liability for the landfill in the future if you
will pay us to protect our interest .... What happens..if they
decide they want to come back again. They cantt just come back
and forth and back and forth ....
Kubby/ Double whammy ..... private hauler .... Why have a plan...if
communities are diverting waste from our landfill to another
landfill ..... and hauler doesn't have to have a plan...if
people can leave the plan whenever they want...?
Arkins/ I don't know a whole lot more until we find out about what
the DNR is going to choose to do.
Nov/
Arkins/ Recent Supreme Court decision says we can't issue flow
control...gets more and more complex ....
Kubby/ ..... say if you come back you have to pay a big
fee .... indirect flow control measure ....
Atkins/ It is going to be messy for awhile.
Airport, Page 107. Want to make sure we all understand each
other on the Airport. We are now beginning to spend money out
there .... We have new investment. The FAA says they will fund
· it at 90/10...Once the Master Plan is approved ..... $1 million
...we are going to have to come up with to fund this thing ....
keep in mind we are talking some pretty serious issues. We may
be buying another mobile home park ..... We may be buying
bowling alleys...land .... they may be paying for it. Keep in
mind that this decision to keep it where it is has some
consequence and when you buy things up you also lose tax base.
Kubby/ $200,000 hangar, are the rental fees on that hangar going to
reflect the real cost of the interest...building ....
maintaining?
Atkins/ The numbers that I saw, no they did not.
Kubby/ I think they have to.
This represents only a reasonably accurate trenscrlption of the Iowa City council meeting of J~nuary 10, 1996.
WS011095
January 10, 1995 · . Budget Work Session
Page 30
Atkins] You mean it has to pay its way.
Kubby/ ......
Atkins/ The General Fund subsidy begins to increase in the airport
and it is primarily because their revenues are flat and they
are beginning to incur some new expenses. I Just wa~t you to
be aware...we have got to get a handle on the budget of that
place pretty quick. The Master Plan will have a lot to do with
it...You can have a single purpose aviation authority
which .... broads powers...and they can levy the .27 which is
about $400,000 a year ..... Turning over a great deal of
authority to them but you would be making them very
independent .... That is your call. They may come back to you
and ask for additional money any time they want. I have only
done basic research on an aviation authority ..... If you do
have an aviation authority, you can levy at .27.o.for the
operations of an airport ..... It is something Just to think
about ..... Right now you won the airport ....
Horow/ Master Plan does have to look at land use ....
Throg/ Does the Master Plan look at sources of revenue?
Arkins/ I doubt it...you would have to give a specific charge to
the Commission.
Throg/ We haven't had conversations with the Commission for at
least 6 months...wise to ask them to recommend sources of
revenue to help defray the costs of improvements...involve
them in the process.
Arkins/ I have no trouble with that .... opportunity there.... with
it goes the loss of a great deal of authority that they are
then going to enjoy.
Yucuis/ What doesn't show on the specifics on the Airport is they
have requested improvement to a terminal building and asphalt
around the T-Hangars...$114,000
CHANGE TAPE TO REEL 95-7 SIDE i
Yucuis/ Look at FY97 there is a $40,000 transfer. .... repay for the
hangar....internal city fund...
Kubby/
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January 101 1995 . . Budget Work Session Page 31
Atkins/
Pigott/ Terminal building and what else?
Yucuis/ Terminal 'building and it is listed as ADA requirements
...$45,000
Kubby/ ...where is that laid out...? How do we know what each
department has asked for and what they have received and what
you have proposed in terms of specific kinds of equipment or
services?
Atkins/ ...everything they are doing now they continue to do.
Nothing dramatically different in the General Fund budget.
Kubby/ Like with the Airport thing. I want a line that says
included in this budget is terminal improvements...
Atkins/ We will prepare that for you.
Throg/ Airport really applies to Enterprise Funds...
Atkins/ I think we can do that. We already funded contracts for
tuckpointing...new roof. I am just saying we are just starting
spending money out there. We will prepare a little more detail
on that Airport Budget.
Page 108, Transit. You have asked for some additional
information and I will prepare that for you. Critical
things...General Fund subsidy is growing dramatically,
population served is not changing, ridership remains pretty
flat. I express caution in additional routes. Those are big
hits .... may face the loss of the federal aid, $260,000...8% of
the. budget...Not indication that we will lose the capital
assistance which is about 80/20 federal/city ..... Final one is
in 97 .... we will be purchasing a number of buses .... system
· .. good shape...
Kubby/ ....
Atkins/ Going to have to begin making operations decisions...risk
by extending the life of some of these things..... SEATS...
what you wanted, we will have to split those costs out ....
have no trouble doing that ....
Lehman/
Atkins/ Our maintenance charge backs are high..... Our rolling
This represents only a reosonably accurato transcription of the Iowa City council meeting of Januap/10, 1996.
WS011095
January 10, 1995 . Budget Work Session
Page 32
stock is excellent. .... My big concern in Transit is it is
eating up available GeneralFund money and the population that
is being served is not dramatically changing .....
Horow/ Rolling stock...Page 10 ..... Rolling stock...term for the
computer equipment as we build up towards our GIS program...
Atkins/ No...could we set aside computer replacement reserves...we
have normally not..technology changes pretty quickly ....
Horow/ Investing in the mapping study of the county .... basis for
our GIS system.
Atkins/ We couid...new expense in the General Fu~d then.
Nov/ $25,00'0 a year just for the Library computers ....
Arkins/ You are right .....
Nov/ What are we spending for the rest of us?
Arkins/ Not setting any aside...is out of pocket .... how many stand
alones...150 Kevin says .... Rolling means wheels ..... Computers
meaning t.v.s that you do something with ....
Horow/ ...shouldn't we create-
Atkins/ Could we, the answer is yes. Are you willing...have to
decide...Kevin could probably calculate something and give us
a number and we will do that. Let's see what that number is-
Throg/
Horow/ My point is we have invested in this mapping expedition ....
for...GIS system .... and there is no reserve for the equipment
and I would like us to consider that...new point to the
reserve policy...
Nov/ ...still a lot of reserve policy missing in this budget.
Horow/
Atkins/ That takes you through the overview. Two other issues ....
New Capital Projects ..... A number of budget policy issues
which would include Police Staffing, the federal grant ....
Industrial Park ..... message to Library about their expansion
..... Cultural Center Arts folks ..... some of these are outside
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W$011095
January 10, 1995 . . Budget Work Session Page 33
budget issues....Cemetery needs to be discussed .... that is
basically it...do both of those items at the next meeting ....
Should give us plenty of time for just general discussion.
Meeting 21.February is a waste .... have 7th scheduled. May have
to think about ..another ... '
Kubby/ Make sure we have time amongst ourselves to hash through
things...
Atkins/ If I can have about an hour on the 23rd or a little
more...plan to stay..should give a couple of hours...put some
of these items on your informal work session... Going to do
parking ....
Kubby/ Are you planning .... another prioritization on CIP?
Atkins/ I need to know that from you.
Kubby/ We should. ....
Atktns/ That is your call ..... Just so you understand, we have the
CIP at least generally financed ..... You can do them a little
independently of the thing.
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January 10, 1995 . Budget Work Session Page 34
Council Time 95-7 S1
1. Kubby/ I have a couple things I want to ask council about .....
Santa Rosa ....
Horow/ She called Darrel ....
Kubby/
Arkins/ .... Darrel called me...its raining .... City of Santa Rosa
has not gotten wacked .... suggested a letter..
Kubby/ A resolution from the council....
Arkins/ She did call, she is no longer on the council .... both
mayors. Okay-
Kubby/ We got a letter from .... Free Medical Clinic ..... tours
.... they have requested $5,000 from us .... They haven't gotten
a call from anybody. Encourage you...to go down and
tour...during clinic night .... A reminder. I encourage you to
go down and see what happens there ....
3. Nov/ Let everybody know I have a list of water and sewer rates
from Portland, Oregon...complex document. I want everybody to
look at it ..... quarterly billing...monthly billing by
request ....
4. Horow/ Larry, you will be at JCCOG tomorrow.
5. Atkins/ We have a Citizens Summary prepared...being mailed out
to all board and commission members ....
Adjourned:'8:45 PM
This represents only a reasonably accurate transcdpt]on of the Iowa C;ty council mee~ng of January 1 O, 1995.
WS011096