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Regular City Council Meeting Monday,June 10, 2013 Page 20 Mayor Roe concurred with that suggestion; opining that it would allow Depart- ment Heads to be more prepared and that it would provide a good framework to begin with. Discussion ensued regarding scheduling of those meetings; with Mayor Roe di- recting staff, by consensus, to poll the City Council on available dates and times that could work. When considering whether to include weekends in that potential schedule, Mr. Trudgeon opined, with consensus of the City Council, that it would be unfair to staff during the summer months to ask them to meet other than during a weekday/evening. Further discussion included whether to focus on levy versus non-levy funds, with Mr. Miller clarifying that the levy was statutory, but the budget was not, even though it was past practice that the budget and levy went hand in hand; and the public preferring to know the whole picture, whether levy or non-levy funded. At the request of Mayor Roe, Mr. Miller advised that he would research when the preliminary budget needed to be adopted and report back to the City Council. It was the consensus of Councilmembers that the entire budget and levy, and non- levy funds be reviewed. b. Receive Update on Legislative Impacts on the 2014 Budget At the request of Mayor Roe, Finance Director Miller provided a more informed review of the recent legislative actions on the 2014 budget, as detailed in the RCA dated June 3, 2013; and as addressed in the RCA dated May 13, 2013, provided as a bench handout, outlining preliminary major budget impacts for the property tax- supported programs. Mr. Miller provided estimated dollar amounts for each cate- gory in 2014 budget dollars. Discussion included Local Government Aid (LGA) benefits in relation to levy limits reinstated for 2014; the reinstatement of sales tax exemption for cities with some exceptions; mandatory PERA contribution increases for the City and em- ployee for Police and Fire employees; and ways to capitalize or reduce CIP tax- related benefits in non-tax supported areas while recognizing quick erosion of savings with inflationary impacts. At the request of Councilmember Willmus, Mr. Miller advised that he would alert Department Heads of the prudency of deferring any applicable major purchases of equipment/vehicles scheduled for later in 2013 to 2014 to save sales tax. Mayor Roe noted that the estimated levy increase under the levy limit would be reduced with the impact of LGA allotment, creating a smaller net impact. Mayor Roe advised that he would be looking to staff feedback as to whether to use the $225,000 for operating for year 2014 or continue to follow current policy in not