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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2005-11-28 Transcription November 28, 2005 City Council Meeting With Legislators Page 1 November 28, 2005 City Council Meeting With Legislators 4:30 P.M. COUNCIL PRESENT: Elliott, Wilburn, Vanderhoef, Lehman, O'Donnell, Champion, Bailey COUNCIL ELECT: Correia STAFF: Atkins, Karr, Dilkes, Helling, Nasby GUESTS: Joe Bolkcom, Mary Mascher, Bob Dvorsky, Dave Jacoby TAPES: 05-79 Side 2 and Side I Lehmani Weare ready. I want to thank you, Legislators, for being here. In front of you, you will find a Resolution that the Council has passed, listing some of the things that we feel are priorities for this session, and some of us having been at the meeting last week and listening to the fact that this is an election year and don't expect a whole lot (can't hear) doesn't really change our priorities a whole lot. Obviously, Council people are welcome to join in, but I did mention to Dave, last week I heard you say the word freeze the rollback, which was a wonderful thing. You know, I understand that (can't hear) overhaul the property tax, in a year or maybe even two or three years, but a freeze on the rollback would be an . invaluable thing for cities all over the State. Not that they like the number you're going to put on it, but the fact that they can depend on what they can expect going through their budgets, and I know, Steve, you've been working on budgets for what? Three months? And now you're looking at.. .you're really slow, by the way! (laughter) But.. .it would really be, I think, a tremendous planning tool for cities if they knew (can't hear) that it would not be greater than a certain number. Elliott! Even if you could do it for a period of years. A 3-year plan or a 5-year plan, even that, even a compromise like that would be beneficial. I like the freeze, but even a compromise. O'Donnell! Right; I think the question is how realistic is that? Bolkcom! (can't hear) Yeah, I think when you start, you know, figure out what the top five (can't hear) property taxes (can't hear) I think once you start (can't hear) I think sometimes when people talk about stabilizing the rollback, people that don't like the big property taxes and would like to reduce property taxes, see that as a way (can't understand) more efficient or whatever. So I think it's challenging to pick out one thing that we like, let it pass (can't hear). Wilburn! Well, given that and given that it is an election year, I'm thinking back a couple years when we all passed our budgets and then everything changed. Since it's an election year, do you think it's less likely that there will be any action to mess with the rollback or to change any. . . formulas going to states, after we passed our budgets? That was very frustrating exercise. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the November 28, 2005, Iowa City City Council work session with area Legislators. November 28, 2005 City Council Meeting With Legislators Page 2 Bolkcom! I think that the degree to which property tax credits were underfunded would cause (can't hear). I think the last election that Republicans (can't hear) they passed that. They suffered (can't hear). I think they'll be (can't hear). Wilburn! Okay. Mascher/ And, Ross, we didn't support that, as you know. Wilburn! Yeah, I wasjust...I mean, we're just trying to get a picture what your assessment of the session's going to be like. Mascher/ I don't anticipate that happening again. Dvorsky/ Well, and not to be realistic again, at 25/25, we can't necessarily move positive things forward. We can kill anything in the Iowa Senate. So, if there's something really goofy, we can kill it. I informed Speaker Rants of that at one point, if the House passes something really goofy we can kill it, so.. .he really enjoyed that. Lehmani That's really encouraging. Dvorsky/ It's very incremental, had we been 21 to 29, which we were before, we couldn't have moved to have done anything, and this is the first time. It's a direct correlation, and we got to 25/25, and you're not being cut in the middle of your budget cycle. That's pretty clear, what happens. I hope people understand that. Bolkcom! We never would have allowed.. .the property tax credits were underfunded (can't hear). Vanderhoef/ While we're talking about the property tax, you'll notice on our list, the item on Manufactured Housing, and I know some of you have seen this before. Dave, I think it came before this group prior to you being in the Legislature, but the bill for mobile homes came in in 1970, where they assessed 10 cents per six months, so 20 cents per year, per square foot of a mobile home, and the way the Code defines mobile home includes all of the component homes, the manufactured homes, all ofthem fit into this same category, and at the same time, they gave a depreciation number for those homes. So, not only did you have a new home in 1970, then in... by 75, you had had this depreciation coming in, so each year those manufactured homes are paying less. They have certainly come into the City in mobile home parks. They still are on leased land, but they aren't taxed as real property. The houses themselves are being appraised, or being resold, in some of these parks, at the same price or a higher price than what they paid for them. They're appreciating in value. They're not depreciating, and I know that there is a year, and I can't tell you what year it is, but I think it's late 60's, early 70's that any home that was built prior to that time can no longer be moved because they were built in a different way, and those are the homes that do depreciate in value, This represents only a reasonably accnrate transcription of the November 28, 2005, Iowa City City Conncil work session with area Legislators. November 28, 2005 City Council Meeting With Legislators Page 3 and certainly now I suspect that if you look at our property tax sales in the County, if you look at the big listing in the paper in the middle of the summer when they do tax sales, those mobile homes are being listed in great numbers because they're not paying taxes on them, and we had, just outside in the County recently, a mobile home park that had had abandoned homes that needed cleaning up, which was another cost, but from a City perspective, I'm seeing the services rendered to the folks in those communities are getting very same services that we are giving to every citizen, and they are paying a very small percent of their taxes to receive those services. So, I would encourage you to take a look at that bill. It happens to be, the Code is Chapter 435, Tax on Homes in Mobile Home Parks, and see if we can either incrementally bring up those taxes by the square foot. Personally, I would prefer that it went straight to the same rate as we have for any personal property, and that would be the easiest and quickest way, but certainly depreciation on those homes shouldn't be allowed. Mascher/ Dee, is there a House or Senate file on that now? Do you know? Vanderhoef/ Not that I'm aware of. Mascher/ Are you aware of that? Jacoby/ I don't think anything's been introduced for a couple of years on that. Actually, Dee, one comment on freezing rollback, the bills and proposals I've seen, that's the common denominator that I've extracted from (can't hear) we saw a number of bills on property tax reform, and property taxes, (can't hear) proposal and others. The one thing you can pull out of all of them is some mechanism for freezing or holding property taxes. So that's why I say, if we could extrapolate that one single point, and even in an election year, make that something that benefits everyone. I think...I don't think we'll get anything signed by the Governor, but I think we'll start to see something that's written up that, in the next year or two, that we can actually put on the plate and help cities. Manufactured housing, and your rental units to me, are a similar discussion because in one way we're talking about commercial property. And space being leased. And the fact that we wrestle with affordable housing, versus density. I mean, let's just call it what it is. We have different densities, which means a higher use, which means a higher use across the board. More city services, more garbage removal, more people.. . more vehicles on the street, you know, for your Road Use Taxes. I don't know, the only thing I can tell you from the House side, from the Commerce Committee, there were a couple of meetings on this this session, last session this year, and there's a pretty strong movement not to touch those. And, in all honesty, it's very strong not to touch those. Vanderhoef/ Why? Mascher/ From manufactured housing... This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the November 28, 2005, Iowa City City Council work session with area Legislators. November 28, 2005 City Council Meeting With Legislators Page 4 Jacoby/ From manufactured housing people, and from....it falls, I think, these two fall in the same category. They're somewhat related -- by owners oflarge apartment complexes. Those...it seemed from the people at the table, and 1... people who owned a hundred or more units were very, were very strong on saying 'we don't touch manufactured housing,' would slide into rental units, would slide into.. . so there was a big push not to. Vanderhoell They think it will go into rental units? Jacoby/ Well, because you're talking about leased areas and housing densities, so once you talk about densities and use city services and county services and state services, that those two would be tied together. Elliott! Seems odd that you go to making something, which needn't be as complex, you make it very complex to make it unfair. I mean, why don't you just tax rental units as rental units, why don't you tax houses as houses, why do you have to have special formulas. It would be so easy just to treat everything equally. There's manufactured homes now are as good as any other kinds of homes. They shouldn't be treated differently. I can see why the manufacturers don't want it. It's easy to sell. You can say 'hey, you get a good deal on this.' But when somebody turns apartments to condos and says 'well, they're condos' - well, they aren't. They're rental units. Jacoby/ We wrestled with that in Coralville when that came up, when you're building 12 units and suddenly it's a condo, and I was on the Council too when we got that dictum from the State about 'your retroactive certified budget.' If I would have had any hair, it would have fallen out that night. Talk about changing the budget - we certified a month and a half ago, but I agree, Bob. If there, but people don't agree across the line what's fair. And.. .well, Dee brought up one of the points, well...(several talking at once) But Dee brought up the point that a lot of the new manufactured housing is built so it doesn't 10se...I don't know if the, I don't know if it's appreciating. I certainly know it's not depreciating at rates that it did in the 60's, 70's.. .so, you're seeing a new style of manufactured housing, some of them... Elliott/ I've been in manufactured homes that are certainly much better than mine. And bigger, well made, well insulated. Vanderhoef/ Fireplaces, the whole thing - they're very, very nice, and the fairness is to the rest of our taxpayers who are subsidizing for the services that those homeowners get. Jacoby/ That's a different tax structure. The minute you detach it from a leaser and it becomes your property. That's where. . . Vanderhoef/ And they are taxed that way. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the November 28, 2005, Iowa City City Council work session with area Legislators. _._~,___,,_,,_,_,,~_,,"~_'__"'_'_~_'_ ____._.______.-..-_______.________._____._. _____.___."..__ ""' _, ._______. -----.._.._.'0.,' _______..____..... November 28, 2005 City Council Meeting With Legislators Page 5 Jacoby! That's where the sticking point is, is... Lehmani It's personal property rather than real estate. Jacoby! Correct. Lehmani Which is the distinction. Let's.. .do you have the sheet? We've been jumping all over, but the first one that we have on our sheet is the Values Fund, REAP, CAT Grants, and Vision Iowa. Obviously, we feel those are critical, important things for the cities in Iowa. I have no idea what your guesses are as what'll happen to those this year. I don't know that anybody does. Dvorsky! I never quite understood the sort of lack of support for these programs. I mean, if you go city by city, there's tremendous things going on in all cities across the board and probably every county. You know, we have a number ofthem in this county. I mean, North Liberty's got three or four alone in my district, and there's all kinds of. . . Iowa City. . . and all kinds of things that are going on, but somehow that doesn't translate so much into supporting the (can't understand). I don't know why that is because they leveraged, I don't know, what? A million dollars or something.. . couple million dollars or whatever, so, but I would hope they'll continue to promote that and move forward with it. Lehmani Do you envision any issues with TIF this year? Do...I think I heard you the night that maybe TIF is going to be left alone? Jacoby! Actually, what I've heard from (can't hear) eminent domain was thought to have corne up. Mr. Gipp mentioned that it would not be up for debate, but again it has arisen (can't understand) talked to a couple people today that are crafting bills in eminent domain. What happens is eminent domain, condemnation, tax abatement, and tax forgiveness, if you will, all gets rolled into one little basket, and people confuse what they're talking about with each one. The D.O.T. Building in Ankeny, which was, if! remember correctly, going towards condemnation, which was also talked about being in a TIF zone, that basically what happened was he thought he was forced, and he was in my opinion, forced to sell his land at around $18,000 an acre, and then within two years that land was suddenly valued at $235,000 an acre. So, if! was him, I'd be a little upset too. Vanderhoef! The Indian Knoll? The Indian Knoll one? Jacoby! Ankeny. Vanderhoef! Ankeny, okay. Jacoby! Because, and what confused that a little bit was TIF and whether it's in a zone or not, was that it was a government entity that was moving the D.O.T. station and This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the November 28, 2005, Iowa City City Council work session with area Legislators. "--~._-----------_.-_...._._-----" November 28, 2005 City Council Meeting With Legislators Page 6 ultimately purchase some of this land for another ultra-inflated price. But, so I think what happens with that particular thing, there's a couple bills being prepared now that mention TIF in them, while it's a separate topic we've rolled them together. I don't think TIF will be an issue in and of itself, except for one factor and that might be funds released to schools, some areas - and you're talking two levels of funds; you're talking your (can't understand) monies and you're talking about your general monies from the increased valuation. Locally, everyone, Iowa City, Coralville, North Liberty - the local entities - have never questioned it and have always released the (can't understand) monies. I mean, when it came to us, it's within the city's purview to say 'we can keep the (can't understand) money' but no one locally, and correct me if I'm wrong, Steve, but I think everyone said 'no, schools are part of our growth; we're not going to hold that back' so the (can't understand) monies were released. I think some ofthe legislature and proposals coming up, maybe on the Senate side, are targeting TIF and how it affects the schools. It's...but remember, other areas, some other areas use TIF differently. They use it for residential TIF and this was why my concern was to get the information out there correctly, whether you're talking commercial TIF, residential TIF, are we talking...how we use that money, and then if you're in a school district, like Sac City with 35 seniors and 12 freshmen, I mean 12 kindergartners, you've got a whole different scare ofthe use of TIF in your town than we do in Iowa City...in our, Johnson County area where we passed the bond issue, where we have a big support for our educational system. So, it...I think some things, even though the leadership said it won't come up, I think eminent domain will be discussed, at least in committees. I think TIF will be discussed in the committees. I hope it doesn't make it out of committee because I don't see anything coming out that's going to keep the constructive use ofTIF available for cities. Atkins! Ernie, doesn't the current Iowa law pretty much take care of that eminent domain issue? I mean, just leave it alone. Elliott! What'd you say, Bob? Dvorsky! Iflegislature reads current law...(several talking at once) It's kind of interesting, the TIF situation in the Senate that the last time there was a bill that really changed TIF a lot, not to the cities advantage, it was offered by then Senator Sievers who was defeated by then the mayor of Eldridge who is now Senator (can't hear). Funny how that works. Bolkcom! My sense about TIF is it in general I don't think anything will happen with it. I do think, however, that recent years, fairly substantial reporting requirement by cities about how TIF money was (can't hear). So, if you try and gather information at the State level- they know who's using it, they know how much money is out there - they have very little by the way of understanding (can't hear). I don't expect that. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the November 28, 2005, Iowa City City Council work session with area Legislators. November 28, 2005 City Council Meeting With Legislators Page 7 Dilkes/ I do want to, the issue of condemnation - I think the issue was how it relates to urban renewal. And you can do an urban renewal plan for economic development purposes, and you can condemn land in furtherance of the purposes of that plan. So, I think that's where the issues arise. Mascher/ The only other comment I was going to make is about the fact that the State is picking up that TIP money in terms of the property taxes and it's being replaced at the State level. A lot of people have asked when is that going to stop, because the amount is increasing year after year after year, and it's an enormous dollar amount. It was over $200 million at one point, and I'm sure it's beyond that now. (several talking at once) I thought it was more than that, Bob. Okay, I thought it was a lot more than that. Dvorsky/ No, it's like 20 or 30. Bolkcom! Coralville's actually the second (can't hear). Wilburn! If you all need information about how it is used and specific examples, I think, Steve Nasby had worked up, based on our performance standards, here's the turnaround, etc, etc. So, I think he had a PowerPoint too. Okay. Mascher/ And the other thing, some towns have been TIPing the whole town, and that has come back to haunt them, and I. . . Lehmani Is that Tiffin? (laughter) Mascher/ I wasn't going to say any names, but since you brought it up - yes! (laughter) Dvorsky/ They have a mayor for life in Tiffin. (several talking and laughing at once) Vanderhoef/ Are there examples out there where the housing TIPs have absolutely, basically killed the city, put them under without the payback ability coming off of those? Dvorsky/ I don't know where that one that raised all the hackles was in West Des Moines, where they TIP'd the gated community or whatever it was. (laughter) They TIP for some real fancy. . . Glen Oaks or somewhere like that. Mascher/ It had been a slum area though, Bob. (laughter and several talking at once) J acoby/ I am aware of one city where they used considerable residential TIP and the struggle with that, well, it's a small city so not considerable for that town, but the problem is the valuation of the home, you know. You're rolling the dice that we're going to improve our city, people are going to move here, want to stay here, and at least improve the value of the homes that you live in, and their struggle is the fact that their homes have lost 3 to 4% a year over the last five years, so not This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the November 28, 2005, Iowa City City Council work session with area Legislators. November 28, 2005 City Council Meeting With Legislators Page 8 only do you lose the values of your homes, expecting them to attract people and to keep them, increase their value - those in that district lost. So they're not, there's that gap between that perceived value.. . anytime you have a TIF, you're technically not losing money on the present valuation. It's the increased valuation that others don't see the money coming to. When that decreases, guess what? It's even more lesser. Elliott! More lesser? Way to go! (laughter) Lehmani Now at least I understand it! (laughter) Vanderhoef! The Values Fund, I just want to ask a question about it. Earlier this year, like in September, we published in the League of Cities, Cityscape, a map of the various grouping of counties that had put together, or were working together in some form, so that they would meet the criteria to even apply for Values Funds. Do you think that design that was put in there is actually promoting anything new or different in the collaboration, or is it just in verbiage only that we have worked together, therefore, we should be eligible for Value Fund? Dvorsky! I don't know in a lot of other areas, but I do know in some areas, economic development basically is carried out on a regional basis, I mean, obviously it is here with ICAD and Priority One and this corridor groups and all that and that makes a lot of sense. Apparently in other places it isn't necessarily. So, if there's some way to encourage the groups working together. I mean, I think that's why you ended up with all these little schools, all these little towns that have their own high school and they don't want to merge with the person next door or whatever, and we can't afford to do that anymore. I mean, they have to work together in various ways, and if that's some way to kind of have them work together, I think that's important we do that. I don't think that, you know, it's something that occurs in eastern Iowa because all the different groups kind of work together here, I think, but other parts of the state it doesn't. Vanderhoef! The Governor was down in Mount Pleasant recently to try and bolster those people into, there's a four-county area, down there, and I listened and they were things that certainly Johnson and Liun are doing at this point in time, and have been doing for a number of years. The assessments of some of the people who live down there, it was, yeah we've been doing it, and others would say we haven't been doing them. So, it's sort oflike, if they don't collaborate they don't get Value Fund, but then I looked at a neighboring county that hasn't joined with anyone at this point. So totally ineligible in funding, and is there going to be a push to make groupings take in a county that isn't already in a grouping? Certainly, we have a two-county group that is over 200,000, therefore, we're eligible. Otherwise, the others, if you don't meet the 200,000 population, you've got to get three or four counties to even... This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the November 28, 2005, Iowa City City Council work session with area Legislators. November 28, 2005 City Council Meeting With Legislators Page 9 Mascher! Well, isn't that the incentive for them to do that? They're not eligible for the funds (can't hear). If they don't chose to do that, then chances are they're not going to get funded. So.. .it's the same thing with our school districts. In order, phasing out the budget guarantee, and the bottom line is, they're going to have to merge with somebody else or look at cooperation, whether they share teachers or administrators or whatever. They cannot to exist the way they are, and they know that, and it's just a matter of within the next ten years, they're going to be gone. So that's the reality. Jacoby! I think the Values Fund was right behind Medicaid, which is monitored every month and how the spending is going, what programs are invested in, Kirkwood Community got "x" amount of dollars from the Values Fund and is using it for a number of initiatives. Part of the urban/rural discussion, if you will, that we had, the economic development, was a threshold for producing new jobs, 28,500 a year. For us in the corridor, 28,500 is a realistic and a fair number to say 'hey, we should be generating jobs within that income range' within that wage range, but then you've got Davis County coming in, saying if we got ajob at 28,500 that might be one of the more wealthy people in our county so we don't want that threshold set here. So there's thresholds that you read through the legislation that you get that urban!rural - how do we bring something here that we can bring somewhere else? The Vision Iowa money, some of that was used for swimming pools in some of our medium or smaller towns. Monticello, I believe, was one of the towns that benefitted from that. There's a swimming pool in Iowa City or Coralville or North Liberty, what do we do? Well, we raise private money and we have a referendum and we vote on it and we build a pool. Smaller areas we're seeing 'we need this to keep our community alive' so (can't hear) state, and once again, that's parallel to what Mary was saying about schools and budget guarantee going away. At some point we have to decide how much do the populated areas pay for the rural areas to keep their doors open, but I think the Values Fund, I think all of us will have preliminary reports on the Values Fund in January when we come in, which again, will be right behind or multiply Medicaid figures. Champion! This is a little bit off the subject, but since you're talking about economic development. I guess I'll just put it brief - when is the State going to stop considering gambling an economic development tool? It really bothers me. It's really terrible economic development. It seems to be growing and growing and growing, rather than originally it started on two boats on the Mississippi, and now we've got gambling casinos all over the State, and I have to look at the social welfare problem dealing with gambling, and I think it costs us all a lot of money to make a lot of people rich, and it's not the State getting rich off of it. Mascher! Connie, it wasn't a coincidence that the casino at Riverside was put where it was. Champion! Oh, I'm sure not. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the November 28, 2005, Iowa City City Council work session with area Legislators. November 28, 2005 City Council Meeting With Legislators Page 10 Mascher/ It's as close to Johnson County as it possibly can get without being (several talking at once), and they're planning on, you know, tapping into this community for that. The reality is we're addicted to gambling, as a State. Champion! I mean, people at least drive an hour to do it. Bailey/ That's the problem when they drive an hour they're going to be driving to Johnson County, and there's also bars and other things down there. I mean, if we're going to get the fallout, we're... Champion! We're going to get the fallout. Elliott! You have to remember, there are a lot of people who really enjoy it too. Is tobacco good? Is alcohol good? Is fried foods good? I just, I don't see.. .I'm with you, Connie, I would rather the State didn't promote it, but I'm not ready to say we shouldn't have it because I know a lot of people who really enjoy it. Champion! When we had two boats though (can't hear). Jacoby/ The only question with that was capacity because, whether you enjoy gambling or not, my two questions are: do we have the capacity in Iowa? Do we need more gambling venues, and second of all, what's our tax rate - 21 % now? After...that's what we need to look at when you see some ofthe books on gambling. It's not the legislators, our purview to establish profit margins, but then again, if we're rurming new gambling venues on, saying that this is an influx for services in Iowa, no, we definitely need to raise that tax base above 21 %. You know, 26% sounds really good to me. Elliott! Ijust figure the lottery and gambling, taxes that other people pay. I'm too tight to do it myself. Dvorsky/ You might know it, they listed in the Des Moines Register, they listed the top salaries of State employees, and the top ones were of course Kirk Ferentz and coaches and that, and then... mc docs, but the highest paid, I think, State department head is Dr. Stanek who runs the lottery. So, tells you something - I think it's $215,000. Champion! .. .not so rich to waste their money on stuff that's.. ..terrible social disservice for families and the state and the city social services. . . Mascher/ And, Connie, what they did when they increased the number of casinos and that bill passed through, they also increased the amount of money for treatment programs, which had been woefully inadequate for a long, long time. Good question, good point. Champion! (can't hear) This represents only a reasonahly accurate transcription of the November 28, 2005, Iowa City City Council work session with area Legislators. November 28, 2005 City Council Meeting With Legislators Page II Dvorsky! One of the kind of interesting things in all of this is Des Moines is, or the Legislature and gambling is based a lot on what goes on in Prairie Meadows, and they're all Polk County, and all the stuff that goes on there, well, now that you're getting more casinos around the state, it's going to kind of defuse that a little bit, so you might have more of a chance to actually pass something state-wide because everyone will have a casino within their area and they might, it might be a little different than just dealing with the Polk County issues, which we have been in the past. So". Mascher/ Other than Ottumwa, who was so devastated not being able to get one of the... Bolkcom! They were competing with the Riverside one and they couldn't have drawn nearly as much based on their... Lehmani You know, one of the things we really don't realize and it really kind of struck home to me last week when I talked to the Mayor of Mount Pleasant. You know, we are not pleased with everything, but on the other hand, we are so fortunate in the corridor. Employment, income levels, I mean, whatever, we are so fortunate, and we really don't appreciate some of it, some of the problems that much, in fact most of the state deals with, like the economic problems, unemployment, and you know, the gambling thing, and I totally agree with Connie when it comes to gambling, but I believe the gambling thing, when it came to Waterloo, Ottumwa- that was perceived by those communities as a huge economic development issue for...J think there's a lot of studies that show that's actually not true, that the costs are greater than the revenues, but these people are desperate for economic development, which is why I think we did see more and more gambling around the state. Elliott/ Yep, Mount Pleasant lost Blue Bird; Washington lost the calendar factory; those are huge, huge losses in those communities. Bolkcom! The lobbying on that point, and I think you're absolutely right, I mean, it was kind of shocking having downtown business people from Emmitsburg at the Capital lobbying, you know, the hardware store owner and you just had these business owners, 50-year-old, 60-year-old guys and they just come in and start talking about the future of their town. Why they needed this gambling thing. It was amazing. It was sad to hear the stories, and just the deep concern in these towns about their futures. Elliott/ And then if those towns lose their schools, then if you've seen a town, what happens when a small town loses a school, it loses it's identity; it becomes a bedroom community; it's tough. As Ernie said, we're so lucky. Jacoby/ Those two things - schools and courthouses, that's what people are most afraid of the doors closing, those two things, and it's tumbleweed season. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the November 28, 2005, Iowa City City Council work session with area Legislators. November 28, 2005 City Council Meeting With Legislators Page 12 Lehmani Well, the next issue we have is changing the Road Use Tax formula, which I, I'm not terribly optimistic that's going to happen either. (laughter) Dvorsky/ One bright spot there, I think, is Representative Jeff Elgin who's Chair of the State Government Committee in the House and he's retiring, and this is one of his things that he really wants to do, so he's going to really be promoting that, and I don't know if it'll go anywhere, but that's going to be one of his mission's this.. .he's a pretty able legislator, so we'll see what happens. If it gets to the Senate, then I don't know, but... Jacoby/ Actually, Jeff and I have met twice, trying to put an outline together to present to the rest of the corridor people for either a thumbs up or thumbs down doing some number crunching, preliminary numbers that we're looking at, with quite frankly, would favor Linn and Johnson County. It would hold the county monies at slightly less than they receive now, and the cities would see a significant increase in the amount of dollars they had for roads. It... I'm a little more optimistic on this one because of what Bob mentioned, that Representative Elgin is retiring and he's heck-bent on this particular item, and when we look it over, I don't know how all of us will feel about it when it comes to the time to look at it and say 'is this something we can accept and move forward' but I think it.. . otherwise it wouldn't have as much of a chance as I think it does this coming session. Mascher/ This is another example if the Farm Bureau isn't behind it, forget it. It isn't going to happen, and that's.. ..and if Jeff, you know, expects to get that done or needs help, then he needs to be sitting down with that organization to be able to gain the support and to help convince them there's an advantage for the rural areas too. Lehmani You know, I think I heard, just the last couple of days, some ad Farm Bureau's running on changing the condemnation laws, and it is one of the most misleading.. .radio ad, how committed, well it sounds like the ad would lead you to believe that any farm land in Iowa is open season, no it's open season for cities to come in and government, whatever, yeah, and I think it's terribly misleading because I thought we're basically pretty well covered on our condemnation law, except perhaps (can't hear) property, which Eleanor mentioned, but I thought that they're spending all this money. Well, it sounds good - the ad sounds good. Mascher/ And it scares people. Lehmani Yes. Next item we have is MotellHotel Tax. Have any ideas on what the possibility would be on raising the limits on that? Mascher/ Well, I know the counties are going to be approaching the cities to talk to them about sharing in the profits there. They'd like to see more cooperation between, This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription ofthe November 28, 2005, Iowa City City Council work session with area Legislators. November 28, 2005 City Council Meeting With Legislators Page 13 again, corridor groups, to be able to see advantages for both the counties and the cities, in terms of who would benefit from that. Bailey/ Based upon what? (several talking at once) Mascher/ Well, but there are more being built if you look at our corridor. Bailey/ Right, in the cities. Mascher/ Yeah, well.. .not necessarily. Iowa City and North Liberty, or between Iowa City and Cedar Rapids, there were. Lehmani I think Iowa City, or Coralville and North Liberty are contiguous, aren't they? There is.. . (several talking at once) Bailey/ Cedar Rapids.. . (several talking at once) Dvorsky/ Comes down to the county line... Mascher/ I think what the county was trying to do was to be able to benefit from some of that, as well. That if we coordinate efforts, that in essence what the monies would be used for would be economic purposes that would benefit both cities and counties. Bailey/ As long as it was related to tourism... this also focuses on using the funding for area cultural activities because I think that's an increasing challenge. I mean, that's a quality of life issue in the corridor, but I think our cultural attitudes continue to struggle, and I think that's of concern, particularly to the Convention and Visitors Bureau board. Vanderhoef/ One of the. . . a few years back this was talked about, raising the hotel/motel tax, and you get in the more rural areas and to even if they've got one hotel, the 20% or the 2% increase to mark it for cultural is not necessarily what they want to do. They want to have the flexibility, so I can understand our corridor, you know, that's a given, but as I recall how hotel/motel tax was set up to begin with, you still have to have a local vote once you have the permission, shall we say from the State Legislature, to raise it and on the local vote we can choose how we want to use it. Bailey/ But unfortunately the current use is not, it's legal, but it's not the spirit - it's the letter but it's not the spirit of hotel/motel tax. I mean, we.. .cities use it for a broad range of activities that don't necessarily directly effect or benefit continuing...exactly. If the letter of the law... Vanderhoef/ Only a certain part of it. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the November 28, 2005, Iowa City City Council work session with area Legislators. ~-_._-_.__._----_.-~---"~-~--"----'~.__._--_..-..._-'----.-.. November 28, 2005 City Council Meeting With Legislators Page 14 Bailey/ Right, that's my point. This gets more to what would specifically benefit quality oflife activities and continue to market and draw people to an area. It's specifically, I mean, and we discussed this when we put forth these priorities, but this is something that would benefit our area. Champion! Our area, but not necessarily... Bailey! But these are our priorities, so isn't that fine? (laughter) These aren't the League of Cities priorities, these are ours. (laughter) Vanderhoef! I'm looking at the Home Rule piece of it, so yes, I'm wearing... Bailey! Well, I'm wearing an Iowa City hat and I think this would benefit our area... Vanderhoef/ ...1 would support it locally, but I would like to have the option for each area to use it. Bailey! Well, I think there needs to be more directive though about how hotel/motel tax is used by cities. It really does need to go back into investment in marketing the area for continued tourism and quality oflife sorts of activities, and it's pretty broad. Champion! Not all of it. I mean, I agree with you on this, but not all of it has to go to that. Elliott! It's $2 million? We got.. ..was that in today's paper we got $2 mill off of the 7% last year, Regenia? Bailey/ No. Lehmani $500,000. Elliott! There was something in the paper today bout $2 million. Bailey/ Keep in mind, Iowa City has a few hotels, as well. Elliott/ Was that Coralville, Iowa City, North Liberty, was that the.. . yeah, yeah. Jacoby! But I think (can't hear) discussion is that reminds me of (can't hear) and see, that's where we lose the discussion, if then, and that's what a lot of people want to know in Des Moines, that first of all, people sign pledges not to raise the tax and (can't hear) so you know that. Even ifit's indirect, it would be reason to tax and they sign pledges not to do that. Second of all, those that would move ahead would also say what's it going to be used for? And that's, that goes away from Home Rule or some of the things that you're mentioning, Regenia. Appropriate uses of the money and we (can't hear). I don't want to know, but.. . (several This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the November 28, 2005, Iowa City City Council work session with area Legislators. November 28, 2005 City Council Meeting With Legislators Page 15 talking at once and laughing) That's one of those "ifthen" and those discussions get lost when we're talking about legislation, then, then, then, wait a minute. We lost if. Elliott! Well, what's the possibility? Because everything so far, there hasn't, you haven't.. . (several talking at once) Bailey! Some counties haven't even chosen to have a 7% hotel/motel tax. Lehman/ Well, there're probably some counties that don't have it at all. Mascher! Earlier Bob Dvorsky made the comment that we can block anything, well, that's true in the House too in terms of the Republicans controlling that chamber, and so they can block anything, as well, and if it means increasing a tax, they aren't going to do it. Dvorsky! But it's permissive (several talking at once), but that's a little different thing. No, it depends on what Mr. Stanley says, I guess. Lehmani I think it's important, if you look...and again, we're so fortunate, but when we look at what we do with the revenue that the Convention/Visitors Bureau has.. .it's phenomenal what we're able to do with that. Dvorsky! Well, if you're going to sell those for cultural activities, then you need to get all the cultural groups together and promote this, well no, state-wide it really isn't...it's a lot bigger than you think because they have a...well, Johnson County's big and Lake County's big, but if you put everybody across the State, you know, it is fairly big. So, and that would be their number one priority and start promoting that, they might have a shot at it. Who knows. Mascher! What would you say, what's the $500,000 being used for now? Bailey! 25% goes back to the CVB for marketing the area; 22.5 goes into Parks and Rec (TAPE ENDS) Mascher! 25/22. Bailey! How much is it? Mascher!25 for CVB and 22 for Parks and Rec, 50, right? Over 50% goes to... Bailey! Yeab, exactly. 50% goes to Police. One can understand Parks; one can understand CVB; it's a little harder to understand Police. Mascher! Because you know those people who go to symphonies, they can riot like you would not believe. (several talking and laughing at once) This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the November 28, 2005, Iowa City City Council work session with area Legislators. November 28, 2005 City Council Meeting With Legislators Page 16 Lehman! Uninsured Seeking Health Care (can't hear). Bolkcom! That's most of us, isn't it? Lehmani Well, it's such an enormous issue. Bolkcom! Like half the state. Lehman! State-wide, federal, everything. 1 don't know...which one of us, and I think we all agreed this was some information we needed, what would, what purpose the information's going to serve I really don't know, but... Champion! It might keep Wal-Mart out of the state. (laughter) Bailey! Well, I think one of the things, Iowa City does support free medical clinic and other social services in the community, and I think it's helpful to know what employers in our community and in our state are not covering the insurance of their employees. Mascher! It's an interest of accountability. Bailey! Yes. I mean, we have that when we're providing economic development funding to employers, but, I mean, to have that accountability more broadly, and I think Joe filed, didn't you? Bolkcom! Yeah, I filed a bill that, there was growing concern about the use of the Medicaid program in Iowa as we see our roles increase and so there was some data collected through the Governor's office; looked at employer based on some D.H.S. records about who's signing up for Medicaid. It showed that Wal-Mart had about (can't hear). Wal-Mart's second largest employer, 17,000 employees- it showed that they had about 900 people on the state Medicaid. I'm glad you came in, Bob. (laughter) And then, you know, other larger employers have that, and so because it was only a partial picture, a bill was filed basically to do a better job of collecting data, based on full and part-time employment, as well as employer... because you know a lot of employers are not providing coverage to part-time employees, which seems fairly appropriate. So, it's basically trying to get a better look at it. Elliott! Just so it's collected comprehensibly, because most part-time employees do not have health coverage, and you'll find that among large employers, you'll find that among small, and I just don't want it collected so only the top employers are identified. Bolkcom! Yeah, and the other larger employers that showed up as the top are Casey's General Stores (several talking at once). Hy-Vee had like 400 people, This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the November 28, 2005, Iowa City City Council work session with area Legislators. November 28, 2005 City Council Meeting With Legislators Page 17 approximately. So, it...part of it's that in trying to get a better handle on it. The other piece that, and this was another bill that didn't get filed but will be filed, that will say something like, looking at the largest employers, again, if you were to have 10,000 employees in Iowa, you should spend 8% of your gross salaries on benefits. If you don't, and there's this relationship between not and the taxpayers spending money to cover people, that if you're spending 6% and you ought to be spending 8%, then you'll owe the state like "payment in lieu of" to meet those health care needs of your employees. And that would be employers of say 10,000 or more employees in the state. So, it would be a very select group. Lehmani But how.. ..well, of course, we're debating issues now, I suspect, but my suspicion is, if you look at the number of uninsured folks in the state who work, vast majority of the number of uninsured people work for small businesses, not Wal-Marts, the Hy-Vees and whatever, and yet those are the ones you're targeting. Bolkcom! No, neither of the bills would. I mean, neither collecting more data or focusing on 10,000 or more. Those employers that have 10,000 employees in the state, it would leave everybody else out, but I think it does really point to the failure of the employer-based health insurance program that we principally have in the country and how's it's really, really difficult for small business owners in the face of, you know, double-digit health care premium increases, to do the right thing and maintain a decent health policy for their employees. And that's another area I think there'll be another push to work on, helping the health insurance pools. We had a bill that did pass last year, it was pretty lame actually. It didn't look at existing employers who were providing insurance. It set up a pilot program for people that didn't provide insurance, which is fine, but we have a lot of people struggling that are doing the right thing, that they need pooling or some sort of assistance that way, so that'll be a third area, I think, and it's not really - I know it comes up in the context ofWal-Mart. It is not an attempt to say Wal-Mart shouldn't be in Iowa. Wal-Mart is in Iowa, people like Wal-Mart, but I think what it is saying is that we want you to be responsible as you're making money in our state to do your best to cover those benefits. Bailey! Well, and I would like to open up the discussion about the failure of employer- based health insurance and broaden the discussion about what we do need in this state to support small business owners and collecting the data might be a first step in that direction. Mascher! And this is so much bigger than just health care because I think if we look at affordable housing, you can also tie that into this discussion along with our Crisis Center and Food Bank. We could also talk about a living wage and increasing minimum wage, which is something that we have been looking at, as well, in terms of how do we provide good paying jobs for Iowans so they're not as dependent upon government services, and if they had better paying jobs and had This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the November 28, 2005, Iowa City City Council work session with area Legislators. November 28, 2005 City Council Meeting With Legislators Page 18 more of those benefits provided, they would be less dependent on a lot of these services that we just don't have enough of and are always going to be short of. Vanderhoef/ For these new gambling venues, and the $8 an hour jobs, which there's going to be many of those, is there any provision that they have to provide health care insurance? Jacoby/ No, there's not, but that was discussed by the Economic Development Subcommittee, is as we create new jobs, even if it's through gambling venues, are we going to try and ask for them to provide benefits, and if you remember the comment from 20 minutes ago, urbanlrural- most of the new venues are in rural communities, and while we look at an $8 an hour job and say 'it's not worth it here,' they're saying 'yeah, it's more than worth it here; it's more than worth it in Worth County.' It's... Mascher/ ... statewide. Jacoby/ That's why it makes statewide policies difficult to develop and enforce, but no, it was discussed but never got to pencil and paper. Dvorsky/ 50% of the jobs now pay less than $10 an hour. So that's important to kind of note that. One of the things I think in all these sort of issues dealing with employers and small business and that sort of thing, because a lot of time things that happen in Des Moines are sort of generated by personnel who are in places in certain positions and all that. The Association of Business Industry, ABI, who sort of opposed a lot of these things as long as the Farm Bureau, sort of the Farm Bureau and ABI and others against the League of Cities on various issues. They just hired a new director, and he used to be the head of the Department of Revenue for Governor Vilsack, and he's a pretty straight shooter and a very competent person, so I think we might see some changes here, and what, their direction, I would hope anyway. Mascher/ Randy Bauer? Dvorsky/ Mike Ralston. He used to lobby for Qwest and after that he lobbied for the Iowa Taxpayer's Association. Very competent, straight-forward guy, and maybe wouldn't have quite the philosophical bent that the previous director had and maybe would actually work with people a bit more, so I think slowly things are changing in that area, as well as the Farm Bureau is slowly moving in that area. There's a gentleman now who's probably number two at the Farm Bureau that used to be their lobbyist years ago, and ifhe ever moves up, he has a broader view, I think, of things. He's currently on the school board in Ankeny, Danny Prezno. Anyway, if you get some new people in place, I think that's going to be a big move for the State. I mean, overall the years I've been in the legislature, sometimes you know you wonder why there's, why things don't move forward in Iowa, well then you talk to some of these people, frankly, who are in prominent This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the November 28, 2005, Iowa City City Council work session with area Legislators. November 28, 2005 City Council Meeting With Legislators Page 19 positions, and you know why they don't move forward, but I think reasonable people like Mike Ralston might help a little bit. Lehman! Okay. We did talk about manufactured housing. One of the issues, and obviously, Coralville deals with this.. .Iowa City, I guess every community probably does. There are more and more and more condominiums being built all over the state for obvious reasons. It's costing Iowa City a lot of money. I'm sure it's costing Coralville a lot of money, and there are other communities that are perhaps, it's costing them money to a lesser percentage, but is it possible to have real estate tax by the use instead of ownership? We have, we built apartment houses all over town. We call them condominiums and we pay half the taxes, and they compete with apartment buildings that are commercial and pay, have no rollback. Itjust...pardon? (several talking at once) Champion! That's my view of it. I think realistic... Lehmani I know, but the issue is you build an apartment house and you call it a condominium. You build one right next door to it and you call it commercial. They both charge exactly the same rent. Champion! .. .pass that on to the (can't hear). Elliott! That's what I said earlier. The state seems to want to make it more complicated and therefore, to me, less fair. If it's rental property, it should be commercial property. Why is that so difficult? Except that the people who own a lot of them have a lot of sway with the legislature. I presume they're Republicans. Bolkcom! No, this issue has been a real challenge. This issue has been... Jacoby/ Actually, this is an across the board issue. Lehmani If you can't get Homestead Credit, you pay Commercial Tax. That's pretty simple. Jacoby/ And owner-occupied, or not. (several talking at once) I mean, that's what I mean, owner-occupied or not, that's what we need to do is keep it just on that narrow focus. I don't know, the problem is enforcement usually comes back to you, at the cities. (several talking at once) Lehman! And that can be even the new units that are being built today. Obviously, the financing of whatever I'm sure is dependent on the taxation, including the rollback. So you phase it, you take the present ones and you give them a ten-year phase out, but eventually they all should be commercial properties. Mascher/ Can I ask another question? I mean, I know the University voluntarily provides additional dollars to the City for Fire and Police, am I right? This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription ofthe November 28, 2005, Iowa City City Council work session with area Legislators. November 28, 2005 City Council Meeting With Legislators Page 20 Elliott! It's contract, is it not, Steve? (several talking at once) Atkins/ It's not voluntary. Mascher! Oh, okay. I don't think we have a state law that requires it. Lehmani No, I think that if they want fire protection they probably are willing to pay for it. Mascher! But my question is, is it, is the contract adequate in terms of covering the number of homes? Is it based on that? Atkins! No, it's not. It is based upon square footage and we have an excellent agreement with them. It's been in place 50 years. As far as police are concerned, we do have 20!80 agreements for those. They call us in certain circumstances. Yeah, no, we have a very positive relationship with the University. Bailey/ But we don't receive funding for police, just fire. It's a fire contract. Atkins! No we do not. They will respond to ours, as well. Mascher! The only reason I ask is I know that's been an issue in Des Moines for a long time with our government buildings, and all of the, we have God knows how many fire calls every year to the Capital where we have to evacuate, way too many, and the City of Des Moines pays for those and is not compensated. Elliott! You people are smoking too much, that's what it is. (laughter) Lehman! Could we lobby for the City of Des Moines to encourage you to help pay for that? Dvorsky! I would assume the Regents, I think the Regents probably have these contracts because they have a contract with the City of Coralville for the Oakdale Campus too, and I think IMCC, don't they, or not? So, and I assume in Cedar Falls and Ames they have contracts too. I think it's just the, might be the, you know, state governments.. . Champion! (can't hear) Dvorsky! Every so often I suggest we move the Capital back to Iowa City (laughter). Bailey! I think that's a laudable goal. Lehmani Okay, number 8, the Real Estate Transfer Tax. Who would like to speak to that? This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the November 28, 2005, Iowa City City Council work session with area Legislators. November 28, 2005 City Council Meeting With Legislators Page 21 Vanderhoef/ Oh, I suggested it. Lehmani Why don't you speak to it? Vanderhoef/ All right, I'll do that. Lehmani You have one minute - no! (laughter) Vanderhoef/ I probably could do it in one minute. Years ago, transfer tax - real estate transfer tax - came back to the city where it was generated, and it was taken to the State and now rests at the State. I picked up legislative report at the end of the session last year and here were some people asking for, they saw that as a pot of money and so they were targeting it to fund their special requests. I would really like to see it come back to the cities and move it towards those dollars to be used as money for low-income housing, and promote it within the area. Certainly, we have large needs for it here and it seems like an appropriate use for real estate transfer. Bolkcom! I think there's going to be an effort to basically take the transfer tax and give it to the housing trust funds across the state. We...the House passed a wonderful bill to do that; it bogged down in the Senate. I think we're going to make a push to get it going again, but basically a lot of that money will be used for affordable housing as a primary use. Vanderhoef/ So that.. . Bolkcom/ It wouldn't come to the cities directly; it would come to the housing trust funds. Wilbum! Who's the competing interest, or were there other things tied to it or...? Bolkcom! No, I think people just didn't fully understand what the money was going to be used for, and then there was a little concern about duplication of services and, around housing issues, and... yeah, short answer. Vanderhoef/ Okay, if it goes to housing, the state housing trust fund... Dvorsky/ No, the area.. .like the Johnson County Trust Fund, it would go here. Or if a county is where you don't have a housing trust fund, I think it goes to the county, and then they, or whoever's doing it in those counties. How much was that? Bolkcom! ...1 think $15 to $18 million. It's a chunk of money. I think the bill would phase it in over three or four years. I think that's right. And people thought 'boy that's a lot of money to give to affordable housing.' I think there was some of that too. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the November 28, 2005, Iowa City City Council work session with area Legislators. November 28, 2005 City Council Meeting With Legislators Page 22 Elliott! When you talk about affordable housing, are you talking about rental assistance included in that, or are you talking about housing that would be purchased as starter homes? Bolkcom! I think it would be mostly physical.. . money spent to build structures. I don't... whether they be single family or multi-family, would probably be up to the local community. Elliott! Locally we kind of make a distinction. Bolkcom! Sure. I don't know that it'd be used for like vouchers. Elliott! Okay. Dvorsky/ This brings up this other situation where most of, maybe the majority of the legislators have sort of a rural bent in that these things are just off the radar screen. You know, they really don't, they aren't really opposed to them, but they have no idea what a housing trust fund would be unless somebody explains it to them, what it was, what it does, and they're always leery about it because this is something that might benefit a city. Really it's that mindset - they don't want anything to benefit city because it might harm the rural area, and what happens then usually is they hurt the rural area and the city. So... Lehmani You know, you think about it and many rural areas in the state ofIowa where the population has leapt in many, many communities.. . and affordable housing, by our standards, (can't hear) the cost of homes are going down, down, down, down; the cost.. .down, down, down. Obviously, the wages are too. Where an $8 an hour job is a great thing for that city, we kind of look down our nose at it. They don't really have the comprehension that there is no low-income housing. It's like Iowa City, Cedar Rapids, Des Moines, and whether the (can't hear) the housing is very, very expensive. I can understand their failure to comprehend the issue of low-cost housing or low-rent housing because in these rural areas... Elliott! As was pointed out in a recent forum that Iowa City's, a great deal ofIowa City's affordable housing is located in Washington, Ainsworth, and Junction. Vanderhoef/ One of the. . . excuse me. Wilburn! I was saying, but you also have in the rural area, people double and tripled (can't understand). So... Vanderhoef/ One of the ways, I think, is possible to get our rural areas involved is perhaps if you talked about a certain percent of it going for senior housing and disability housing. They have "the family farm" dad and mom want to move into town and there's not a house in town for them to buy. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription ofthe November 28, 2005, Iowa City City Council work session with area Legislators. - ------_._-------~---_._~ -_._....._,-_._-~_._._..__...,---_.~._---'------_.._---,-'---'-~-'-'-'-"-'-'---' ---.-.-.---- November 28, 2005 City Council Meeting With Legislators Page 23 Dvorsky/ Money for rehab too. (several talking at once) There's a lot of housing groups across the state. There's one big one out of Spencer, Iowa, that really serves a lot of rural areas around there. It's just a question of getting the information out there to legislators and explaining it to them. They're into process now, just...I am Vice President of the Jones County Housing Trust Fund, so I'm involved in these process. I've been working these issues for a long time, but I think they're getting more and more in rural Iowa and they do more educational campaigns with legislators, I think the better off we' II be, but I think on Ways and Means, while the senators didn't understand that, and now they're meeting with all those in Ways and Means, so hopefully we'll be able to move that forward. Vanderhoef/ Might that be a possibility yet this year? Bolkcom! Yeah, I think it's going to be one of the first bills that I'm going to see if we can't move out of Committee and get it done, and pass. . . if we can pass the same bill the House passed, we'll.. . it'll be done. And the advocates have been working on it all summer and fall, so hopefully they've got the votes lined up. Jacoby/ And I think you have a bingo.. .oops, we don't want to talk about gambling do we? (laughter) I think you have it right, if we can do it without any amendments on it. Ifwe can keep it clean then it should go... Dvorsky/ There's bipartisan in the House, couple housing advocates over there - one Republican and one Democrat - in the House. Lehmani Public Improvement Bid Threshold; increase it from $25,000 to $100,000. Vanderhoef/ What's the holdup on this? Mascher/ I thought we passed it at the House last year....(can't hear) in the Senate again that are.. . Jacoby/ I thought we raised the threshold, it wasn't to $100,000 though, was it? Did we go up to 50? I can't remember. Lehmani (can't hear) (several talking at once) three or four years, five, whatever it was. Because it was. . . yeah, it's been a while. Atkins/ It was a priority in 05, and I do remember it as you were bargaining it, but then I'm thinking it sort of evaporated. I don't believe it's been approved. Yeah...(several talking at once). Jacoby/ I can only comment from what I've heard on this. This is, obviously those businesses that benefit, or do not benefit, have a different opinion on this. Because I've.. . and this is just a handful so it's not scientific. Couple people said This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the November 28,2005, Iowa City City Council work session with area Legislators. November 28, 2005 City Council Meeting With Legislators Page 24 yeah, it makes sense, raise the threshold, but a couple businesses who weren't getting business with the cities were saying don't raise it. They'll never let me in the door to bid. Champion! Who votes? Them or you? (laughter and several talking at once) Jacoby/ Yeah, after the meeting I was hoping we could go to the boat. That's a good point. The problem is, it's about equal. It's about equal the comments I've heard from local businesses and these are smaller businesses that have come and said I've got a piece of the pie, go ahead and raise the threshold. And others are coming, I haven't got a piece of the pie yet and I'm still bidding with the City of Iowa City and Coralville. Okay... I'm glad I could say it more better, but again, it's not scientific, counting both on one hand, but interesting enough, it's about equal. Lehman! But raising the threshold, we've had projects, and one of them I remember in particular was curb cuts for sidewalks. One year we didn't even get a bid because we, I think.. .isn't there bonding requirement when we put them out for bid? Atkins/ (can't hear) Lehman! Right, but we had small contractors who couldn't bid it, and if we didn't have that restriction, we could have hired them to do it. I mean, I'm sure there's ups and downs; there's two sides to everything. Champion! Can I say one more thing? Lehman! As long as it relates to gambling. (laughter) Champion! I think we have great legislators in this area. We're blessed with you. The whole thing though gets me so angry, not individually you. Mascher/ The gambling. (several talking at once) Elliott/ Don't make Connie unhappy. (laughter) Lehman! Okay. Home Rule. I can just (can't hear) farm land, urban property. That's going to happen, right. O'Donnell/ Next is property tax cuts. Bolkcom/ So we're good on eleven. Good on two. Let's summarize. I think one we're going to be status quo. Eight, maybe. The best I could tell all eleven things had to do with money. (several talking at once) This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the November 28, 2005, Iowa City City Council work session with area Legislators. November 28, 2005 City Council Meeting With Legislators Page 25 Champion! I'd like to talk about the right of the local governments to ban smoking in their restaurants. That doesn't have anything to do with money. Mascher! And I was going to mention that we did increase the alcohol fines. (several talking at once) Lehmani That was very sobering. (laughter) Elliott! It was a sobering experience. (several talking at once) We got a letter saying, you know, what are you doing with all that money and you're taking it off the backs of the kids and things like that, but... (several talking at once). The way it was, it wasn't very meaningful. The level, the dollar level previously, was not meaningful at all, I think. Bolkcom! When it's third offense it's what, third child? (laughter and several talking at once) I'm sorry, I shouldn't... Bailey! Condominiums, hotel!motel. We just keep coming back, you know. Vanderhoef! ... very appreciative of what you do do for us, and certainly I for one enjoy coming down there and getting information from you folks. I stop at the Capital here and there, and I'll be back down this year, as I hope several around the table will. Dvorsky! It would be helpful to encourage your colleagues to have meetings with their local legislators too because I'm not sure a lot of cities do this. I mean, my area, they do - Iowa City, Coralville, North Liberty and others do it - but the, I'm not sure other communities do that and that's one of the things they need to do. Elliott! Just for things in general, I wouldn't mind a shot across the bow to cities and counties urging them to cooperate and coordinate and to combine more than they do. It's tough. You've got turf wars and you've got different philosophies, and for instance, I think if the State ever said to North Liberty and Coralville and Iowa City, either you have one bus system within ten years or we'll do it for you, I think we might move on that. Lehman! Yeah, we'd let them do it for us. We spend a lot of money on busses. Elliott! Yeah, we wouldn't like it as well, but we need encouragement on those areas. Champion! I think we cooperate very well. Mascher! Where are we in terms of the police, the communication center? Champion! We're supposed to get a report on that soon. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the November 28, 2005, Iowa City City Council work session with area Legislators. November 28, 2005 City Council Meeting With Legislators Page 26 Lehmani Next month. Atkins! January 25th, yep. Bailey! Moving along at the speed of government. Dvorsky! Have they looked at what they're doing in Woodbury County? Woodbury County got a lot of federal money to look into doing a. . .I ran that past the Sheriff but didn't know ifI got it to you or not, but anyway, Woodbury County got some federal money to look into doing the big cooperative thing with the sheriff and Sioux City and all that, so it might be a model there on how you could do those things, since they're paying for it, I think that's great. Lehmani Especially great! Elliott! As Dave Heaton said the other night though that they did that in Washington. It was working for a while, and then police and the sheriff.. . yeah. Bailey! So besides encouraging our other cities to do this with their representative, what else can we do to support you all because I think we are really grateful that you're up there and you're advocates for our community. Wilburn! In particular, if there's any efforts on your agenda that you think will be helpful towards cities and counties, are there things we can have staff get information to you, or that we can be - like Regenia was saying - in touch with other state representatives? What's on your... Mascher! You know, I was just thinking about, you know Jeff Kauflnann does have part ofIowa City now that... what's east of Scott Boulevard in the city limits. Am I right? Atkins! Scott Boulevard's about the city limits (several talking at once). Several developers have bought large tracts ofland in that unincorporated area ofIowa City. But very clearly, we're going that direction. Mascher! The reason I was asking is that they often times don't hear the issues in terms of what our cities are dealing with. They tend to be more rural and small town, but the discussions certainly are going to be effecting them, and they should be part of the discussion. Karr! Jeff does have a small portion and he was invited (can't hear). Mascher! It may take a personal phone call to get him here - from one of you to say 'you know we'd really like your input and we'd like to hear what some of the concerns are' - because even if you don't have much ofIowa City now, the potential is This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription ofthe November 28, 2005, Iowa City City Council work session with area Legislators. November 28, 2005 City Council Meeting With Legislators Page 27 there and chances are you will, and those are the people who often times we need to have the discussions with, to be able to show them what you're up against. Dvorsky! The other thing is to encourage people to run. We had real good success last time in running. We ran with four mayors, yeah, in the Senate, yeah... to run next time, yeah. (several talking at once) Wilburn! Is that the lower Muscatine, Scott Boulevard - what portion is... Karr! I'd have to look at the map. I know I double-checked it with the Board of Supervisors on the representation, and the Library as well. Dvorsky! One of the things you could do, and this would actually involve looking at a countywide perspective or even a corridor-wide perspective. You can write all the legislators in the corridor and that would catch a lot of people who don't necessary represent Iowa City or Cedar Rapids or some of the larger communities, but somehow they need to get the perspective for what's going on here. If you did that, a corridor perspective or at least a Johnson County perspective. No, I represent 13 communities, you know, that's a lot, and I don't get to meet with all of them, but it would be helpful to have that type of thing. Lehmani We did a (can't hear) long corridor and we included Waterloo, and you know, realistically, Waterloo is, really is, part of the corridor. We really (can't hear) but if you could get that group of folks together, that is a significant group of people, and get the cities involved at the same time. I think that'd be really... Dvorsky! We have been meeting with our Linn County, Johnson County delegations together and trying to do some things there, and we'll continue to do that this next year. Like the road use thing, I'm sure we could meet with Jeff and others to try and do that and some other things. Atkins! Ernie, one thing.. . hopefully we can do for you, you can do for us...ifyou're working on a piece of legislation - I had a gentleman call me and chat about a legislative issue on a fairly frequent basis. If there's a particular angle, and you give me enough lead-time, we can play that out for you. For example, like on road use. I'm convinced I could make an economic development argument - we build these roads, these businesses have followed, and I've got to believe that would help you, but give us a heads up ifthere's some particular angle on the law. I mean, we need to review the law on its face, but I've got to believe there are other angles we could work on that would (can't hear). Dvorsky! Well, I guess Mr. Elgin and myself have a pre, pre, pre-draft, but once it gets to a draft stage, I'll share it with everyone here for, because I count on the local entities for input, you know. I'll call back and mail back all the time saying 'what are the consequences or unintended consequences' of some of this legislation. I will say one thing, the cities going back to that, that budget snafu or whatever you This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the November 28, 2005, Iowa City City Council work session with area Legislators. November 28, 2005 City Council Meeting With Legislators Page 28 want to call it, three years or whatever it was. I did talk to one legislator who does not get along well with his cities, local entities, and he told me in no uncertain terms that that legislation did you a favor as mayor because it gave you the excuse you've been looking for to cut/slash that budget. I mean, he said that in the paper, he said it in his editorial, he firmly believes, because he had no local govermnent experience, that he was doing us - and I was on Council at that time _ a favor saying we needed to blame someone for this cut and now we had someone to blame. And so that was.. . some of you didn't fully understand, local or city budgets at the time. Mascher/ The other thing I would encourage you to do is connect the dots, and what I mean by that is a lot of our people who work in this area, this economic area, come from those small towns. The roads to get here are critical for them, and that's where we've got to convince those rural legislators and people from those small towns, there's a benefit for them because (can't hear). . ,.and that they take them back to their local communities and spent those dollars there, as well. So, I think we don't always connect the dots real well. (several talking at once) ElIiott/ An example ofthat is there's a couple that lives in Sigourney -- she works at ACT, he works at the University, they both have pretty good jobs. They take a pretty good sack of money form Iowa City and spend it in Sigourney. (several talking at once) They don't want to. They like.....yeah (several talking and laughing) One other thing, some time ago we were taking about TIFs and at one of our conversations, talking about other people using TIFs, perhaps more or differently or not as well as they could be used. I really would like not to get into telling other people we don't like what they're doing, but if you're ever talking about TIFs, I believe, I personally believe, that Iowa City uses TIFs very judicially, and very effectively, and if you want some information on that, Steve could certainly get it for you. Mascherl Can I just give you a couple of real quick feedbacks -- your Youth Summit, Amy came and spoke to our kids the other day about what's going on in Iowa City, and I think it's a great idea and something that I think you'll get a lot of feedback from students here in Iowa City about things they like about this community and things they would like to see improved for young people, and I'm really glad to see you doing things like that, and would encourage you to keep that going. I know it was just beginning, but what a great idea and something I think you'll...(several talking at once). A lot of kids in this community doing really well.. . and the Dog Park, I've heard lots and lots of good cormnents. People are so excited about that (several talking at once). Next year it'll be finished? Elliott! They said I could swim in there, Connie. (several talking at once) Vanderhoeti' Just a date to put on your calendars, for everyone, February I will be League of Cities lobbying day at the State House - February 1. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the November 28, 2005, Iowa City City Council work session with area Legislators. November 28, 2005 City Council Meeting With Legislators Page 29 Dvorsky/ Since this is probably your last meeting, Mayor, I think we should thank you for your service. (applause) Last meeting with us. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription ofthe November 28, 2005, Iowa City City Council work session with area Legislators.