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ARDEN HILLS CITY COUNCIL WORK SESSION — NOVEMBER 10, 2025 10 on the 10-year deferred assessment from Ramsey County. We aren't getting 100% of the dollars in one year. It's spread out over 10-years. Public Works Director/City Engineer Swearingen said the $3.3 million is not only for the streets projects. Councilmember Holden understands that it also includes water and sewer. When we look at the budget, we say it's $3.3 million. Discussion ensued that the levy is based on the budget, which includes both expenditures and revenues. It looks deceiving because we have a budget number that considers all revenues/assessments. The levy is meant to balance out the activity within the fund balance. Mayor Grant said the previous year's unfunded levy cost is $122,000. It is conceivable that we will have our 50% at the end of the year, after Director Yang completes her analysis. If we have that, why would we include it? We've already made it up this year. Councilmember Weber thought it is because we don't have the money yet. He said by removing the money that we owe, despite the fact that there may be $500,000 waiting there to pay it off, we are underfunding the budget with the anticipation that we can pay back that $122,000. He isn't comfortable doing that. He understands the argument for why we may want to. It seems like an easy place to reduce our levy, but we don't have that money yet. We can't guarantee that. Councilmember Holden asked if Finance Director Yang has looked into it and talked to each of the Division Directors. Finance Director Yang asked if she was referring to the 2025 projections. Councilmember Holden confirmed. Finance Director Yang said she hasn't shared the projections with the Division Directors yet. Councilmember Holden asked if she will have that for Council before December. She said it isn't any different than the rest of the numbers we get. We believe Director Yang is doing a good job so we have to believe she is correct in projecting what the surplus will be. Mayor Grant said he got confirmation from Director Yang that she can firm up the numbers by November 17. We are trying to maintain a 50% fund balance. If we get there, then he will talk about under funded balances for the budget because we don't spend the entire budget. We haven't gotten there. We don't have the numbers firmed up. Councilmember Rousseau said it isn't clear where the $500,000 is coming from. If it's something that we have over -budgeted in the past, we.can-look at budgeting more appropriately next year. Finance Director Yang said it is not due to over -budgeting. There is some personnel savings in there and there is favorability on the revenue side for permit fees and building projects. Those revenues were higher than anticipated vs. the budget.