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Regular City Council Meeting Monday, September 24, 2012 Page 27 adding up to a total of$600 million. While having a policy in place to prevent the City Council from spending significant monies without a referendum was a good policy to have, Mayor Roe noted that given the backlog of things not suf- ficiently maintained, as pointed out in 2006 by staff and representing a $15 mil- lion deficit at that time, had remained deferred. Mayor Roe questioned if the City Council could continue to not get those things done and leave it for the next City Council, as had been done in the past. While this City Council could make that choice as well, Mayor Roe noted that the majority had chosen not to do so, and while it was painful in the short-term, in the long-term it would leave the City better off in addressing those issues and other replacement needed could be taken care of adequately. Mayor Roe noted that, in order to implement the CIP funding, significant cuts had been made to the operating fund on a day-to-day basis to address that deficit over that twenty (20) year program; and opined that this fell in that same cate- gory. Mayor Roe opined that the City Council had a choice of going projects at a $2 million basis annually, or to do so on a faster track and fund it through bonding at current low interest rates and lower construction costs; to get the pro- jects off the books and moving forward, similar to the process of home owners for home improvements through use of financing over time and accepting a ma- jor impact during the initial short time. Mayor Roe admitted that this was not, nor had it been an easy decision to make, and recognized that the numbers were big; however, ultimately when looking back twenty (20) years from now, he thought they would prove to be the right decision and put the City in a stronger place, without spikes in annual levies. Mayor Roe advised that this was his rationale to support the motion, as it had been in 2011, and continued to be. In terms of property tax funding and those on fixed incomes, Mayor Roe noted that everyone on the City Council was well aware of that. Mayor Roe opined that the current system of financing government was a terrible system, but fi- nancing government with property taxes was unfortunately the only one availa- ble. Mayor Roe opined that the issue to be addressed was the unfairness of property tax funding, dependent on state legislative action; but reiterated that this was the only funding mechanism available. Mayor Roe advised that, when he ran for election, he had not intended to be a property tax raiser; however, he could not be irresponsible with taxpayer funds, and was charged with leaving the community better off than he found it, as it behooved each Councilmember to do. At the request of Councilmember McGehee, Mayor Roe and Finance Director Miller reviewed the CIP to get the unfunded utility balances zeroed out over that twenty (20) year period; and the phase in of those base rates over a two year pe-