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<br />Dallas- <br /> <br />In my absence of tomorrow's meeting, can you please forward this concern on to the entire <br />council? <br /> <br />I have learned that after I had left our bUdget work session last week, the council and city staff <br />considered and came to the consensus of adding the MVHC levy back into our 2010 budget. I <br />was very frustrated to hear that we are even considering this option after going through our <br />2010 budget line by line and cutting expenses in order to mitigate this unallotment imposed by <br />the Pawlenty administration. In fact, I had left this meeting only because I thought we had <br />decided this issue.. I would not have left if I had known the conversation was going to revert <br />back to this topic. <br /> <br />I do not support levying the MVHC back to the residents in any way shape or form. Yes, it is an <br />unfunded mandate, but passing the bill directly to the residents in the form of a special levy puts <br />us in the same camp as the pawlenty administration. We need to stick to the cuts in spending <br />we agreed to in order to pay for this and shield this unfunded mandate to our residents. I <br />know...... This is MUCH easier said than done, but I believe we had come to an initial consensus <br />that accomplished this without imposing this levy. I believe the driver of this change is the <br />desire to initiate a fund for future road maintenance. Although I support this conceptually, I do <br />not support enacting this during a recession if it means raising taxes. 'personally envision the <br />initial funding of this maintenance fund upon the sale of the Backage road lots that the city <br />currently owns. This, of course, is assuming that there is a profit after the bonds are paid off. <br /> <br />To my fellow council members, please, please, please consider what I am proposing. And yes, I <br />do fully understand that we can at a later time reduce our levy, but not increase it. Despite this, <br />I cannot remember a time of this actually happening. Cuts need to be made and they need to <br />be made now. Please support me and remove the special MVHC from our 2010 bUdget. <br /> <br />Respectfully Yours- <br /> <br />Ben L. Fehrenbacher <br />Centerville Council Member <br />7330 Peltier Circle <br />651.784.6102 <br />