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k*8ffVffihE Parks and Recreation Master Plan Implementation Organizing Team January 11, 2011 7:30-9:15pm Aspen Room Roseville City Hall Attendance: Organizing Team Members Staff Citizen Jason Etten, Chair Lonnie Brokke Gary Grefenberg Dave Holt J i l l Anfa ng Randall Doneen Jeff Evenson Bill Farmer Brad Tullberg Gregg Cummings Chris Miller, Finance Director Gale Pederson Jim Stark Jake Jacobson Bob Willmus Notes: 1. Review Meeting notes from December 13 o No changes or additions 2. Discussion, Questions &Answers with Chris Miller • Lonnie addressed a previous question from Gregg about the need for the City Attorney and Bond Council to attend the meeting. Lonnie felt that we would start with questions for Chris and use additional resources as needed. Briggs and Morgan is the Bond Council for the City of Roseville. They are attorneys that specialize in capital financing. • Chris began by discussing the memo forwarded to the Organizing Team via email on 1/7/11 • Chris would be willing to gather comparative data regarding percentage of tax support or portion of general levy dedicated to parks and recreation from peer cities if the Organizing team wishes to have that data. • Now is a great time to borrow money for capital financing and he does not foresee a significant change in the interest rates in the next 12-18 months. • The memo addressed some additional infrastructure of needs within the City. The needs of other departments (water/sewer, fire stations, etc.) within the City may have an impact on funding the needs of parks and recreation. • Day to day operation funding increases similar to inflationary increases has not been able to sustain the needs of Parks and Recreation in terms of capital improvements. • Chris was asked what are all of our options to fund the Master Plan improvements i. Bond Financing — borrow the money up front, makes the improvements and pay it off over the course of the next several years. Very common funding mechanism. The payment of the bonds are spread over the entire city and paid for by future users of the improvements. ii. Pay as You Go—city council would identify money each year in the budget to replace assets beyond regular day to day operations funds. iii. Referendum — A question would be asked during an election for voters during a general election to approve an increase in the levy to fund master plan improvements. iv. Local Option Sales Tax— The addition of a local sales tax dedicated for park improvements. The term of tax would need to be pre-determined and would be dedicated to a specific project. Roseville has one of the highest sales tax bases in the state. A 1/2 cent sales tax would $6-7M a year. This tax would be largely paid by non-Roseville residents. Chris estimates about 25% of the sales tax generated is by Roseville residents. There is potential for resistance from the business community. Chris did say statistics on the change in retail sales from the couple years prior to and the couple years following the enactment of a local sales tax have not shown any significant change in spending habits. This option requires two steps 1. The City must gain approval from the State of Minnesota Legislature to impose an additional local sales tax on goods and services 2. The voters must approve the sales tax request