Moline City Council Budget Work Session - October 26, 2023
The Moline City Council held a budget work session on October 26, 2023, to review and discuss the 2024-2026 operating budgets. The meeting covered a wide range of topics including personnel additions, capital projects, property tax levy rates, and funding for various city programs. Council members debated positions on new positions, a proposed asphalt program, franchise fee increases, and allocations for community organizations. Several motions were passed, including approval of the general fund (excluding the asphalt program), a $35,000 contribution to Humility Homes for a winter shelter, and adjustments to the franchise fee and capital project budgets.
Discussion Items
- Personnel Additions: Council discussed new positions including a legal director, human resources manager, and rental housing inspector. While some members noted that the positions were not fully offset by cost savings, the majority supported the rationale for adding staff to improve services and bring work in-house. A motion to approve the personnel changes passed.
- Asphalt Program: There was debate over a proposed $150,000 asphalt patching program in the general fund. Some council members preferred to keep it as a separate line item for future consideration rather than including it in the general fund vote. A motion to remove the asphalt program from the general fund was approved.
- General Fund Approval: Council voted to approve the general fund budget with the exception of the asphalt program. The motion also included funding for one-time capital purchases such as vehicles, barricades, and cameras. Some members expressed concerns about the use of cameras and the need for clear policies, but ultimately supported the package.
- Franchise Fee: Council debated a proposed increase in the franchise fee from 3% to 5% starting in 2025. After discussion, a motion passed to keep the fee at 3% through 2026, with a possible revisit in later years.
- Capital Projects and Debt: Staff presented the capital improvement plan, highlighting a large upcoming project at the central fire station. Council discussed the need for a long-term solution, noting that renovation costs could reach $16-20 million. No final decision was made, but the discussion will continue.
- Public Art Funding: Council considered a motion to allocate up to $75,000 from contingency funds to support public art projects in 2024. Some members preferred a one-year commitment rather than ongoing funding. An amendment to limit the support to 2024 passed, and the main motion then passed.
- Special Events Fund: Council discussed the future of the 'Little Live' event. Some members felt it did not generate sufficient economic impact and suggested scaling it back or redirecting funds. No motion was made, but the discussion indicated a desire for more data before future commitments.
- Youth Commission Funding: A motion to increase the Youth Commission's annual sponsorship limit from $1,000 to $10,000 was approved.
- Tax Levy and Other Items: Council approved motions to establish the estimated property tax levies for the city and special service areas, as well as to adopt the updated 2023 budget projections including items from the day's motions.
Key Outcomes
- Personnel additions approved (motion by seconded by O'Brien, passed unanimously).
- Asphalt program removed from general fund (motion by [unnamed], seconded by [unnamed], passed).
- General fund approved (excluding asphalt program) (motion by, seconded by O'Brien, passed on roll call).
- $35,000 contribution to Humility Homes winter shelter approved (motion by, seconded by, passed unanimously).
- Franchise fee kept at 3% through 2026 (motion by, seconded by, passed on roll call).
- Tennis court resurfacing funded at $170,000 in 2024 (motion by Tim, seconded by Schmidt, amended to lower cost, passed).
- Public art funding up to $75,000 from contingency for 2024 approved (motion by, seconded by, amended to one-year, passed).
- Youth Commission sponsorship cap increased to $10,000 (motion by Tim and Finch, passed).
- Estimated property tax levy for 2024 established (motion by, seconded by, passed unanimously).
- 2023 budget updated projections adopted (motion by, seconded by Bench, passed on roll call).
Meeting Transcript
But it would be an increase that's proposed on an average residential on $32. The next chart shows our building limits. And if you look at 22, 22 is the year it's collected in 23 values. And so there you've got the 50 million dollars of new growth. And so far this year come on board and it's never here out. We've got significant value already. So it's nice if you can look at that and have some value. And then I'm not going to say a lot of times you want to be paid them to your own. As we talked about the revaluation, every year we do a little um standing shot of 101. In fact, I think your guys' points might be on this properties. They're not in order, so you'll have to do a search. But um, you can see on the right hand side all the differences in the year, it is all report, and there is quite a few of these properties that are actually home down in the right of all the changes in the lot of people's properties. So all four told. Commercial property overall with the learning rate that we're proposing, the total of the bottom row, about 1.1% citywide or taxing up. But our standard on this one unfortunately is very few property on those only pay two years. And so we're saying flock. But I like to use the same properties all forward every single year so we can kind of show you all the and then the next chart. This is the different snapshot. This is on the current year, not next year, because we do not have a learning rates of all the other tax involved yet. But just for comparison, so you kind of have a field of where we are at the city of Mowyn's taxes for residential and commercial are both lower than our surrounding communities or an average residential property and an average commercial. And at our $32 row, if you add that a month like residential, $3,326, you have $32 now for this year. We're still going to be okay. Um is that a similar number just for our residents in the South Home? Which is about the city. No, I'm sorry, I'm trying to think about one. I didn't have to change at all. I if it was one of our contracts of certain yeah, and I think that is very questionable. And then one of the last charts here to catch on and there's one chart, right? And then ours just on the chart. I just want to give you kind of what would be the prices or two hours. And what this chart shows is our property tax collection and our level rate over the last year. And I think we briefly talked about this in one of our maybe round data. Well, what is shown here is that we're supposed to change our values, total values in the city went up 29.2%. I'm sorry, it didn't show that. Um really all changes over on the right hand side. Our values went up 29.2, but our taxes we only took advantage of about 12% of that total growth, and as we move your own there, that's something that we need to decide where are we comfortable, where is it available, what portion of the total growth do we need to be taking advantage of so that you know we can a DK for all the data operating and fund at the proper level this year. As you know, we are going potentially taking 63% back growth, so it's a little much higher than what it has been in the app. It's just to kind of show you as we as we move the movement and talk about that. So again, just prevent the understanding in my brain, right? This this trend that's kind of been all over the place. Actually, we were fairly steady plus years, but we're up the percent change here for the proposed budget, but that is because the CIP is dependent upon the PCI index recommendations for what we need to do to maintain maintain, let alone improve our code system. Like that is the driver for this particular number, right? Correct. Yes, and there's a second patch of that. Well, this is showing the growth in actual amount. If we never capture that growth, this just becomes more regressive and the rest of the rest of the time. And I think we we are we've been taking advantage of that, and look at our buttons rate percentage we have in much we use, especially with the retirement tip one a lot of us very aggressive at how some of that's fun now. And that when you talk about the level rate, you can see that on this chart as well. So go to common hand, we can for that levy rate and so within this team, it has been tied to $2.08, and now we'll potentially we'll be able to do an hour eight. I mean, you're no right in the right shift overall.
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