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From: ESANDS2612@aoLcom Sent: Monday, June 21,2004 10:05 AM To: city.council@cLroseville.mn.us Cc: chris.miller@ci.roseville.mn.us; neal.beets@cLroseville.mn.us Subject: Fwd: Impact on residential taxpayers of an increase in the levy I asked Chris Miller to indicate the impact on residential property taxes for specified levy increases. This is his reply, which I think the Council should keep in mind. The math is simple: For every one million increase in the levy, figure on a 10% increase in property taxes. $700,000 would be 7%. Two million would be 20%. I bring this up because the City is facing a necessary increase in the levy just to maintain our existing level of services. And we taxpayers have just experienced a major increase in our taxes to fund the City Hall, etc., facilities additions. Times are still bad, economically speaking. Over the next several months, you are going to be hit over the head repeatedly by the Twin Lakes promoters, including Shardlow and the Finance guru, Casserly, to (effectively) increase property taxes to fund a development project. To the extent the project cannot fund itself through the Tax Increment Financing program under existing city policies, taxpayers are going to be paying for a development project out of their pockets. That refers specifically to the "gap" strategies. In my opinion, this is not the time to be funding a development that cannot finance itself through the tif program, when we have so many other important priorities to take care of. It is long past the time that you demand the Twin Lakes promoters present their financial plan before any other matters connected therewith are taken up, including approving plans to the master plan, etc. This project cannot fly on its own. It's the wrong time financially to proceed with it. I am also opposed to passing an ordinance to restrict present land owners, either in the 250 acres they are asking for, and also the 70 acres now under consideration, until you have a financial plan that is doable (feasible). Please remember, the financial plan they have previously proposed wants 46 million in subsidy. The plan they presented does NOT show how much they expect they can cover in tax increment proceeds. It only shows what they want to borrow initially. Based on the current TIF II, which is all we legally have in place, we only have 10 more years of tif collections available, and that district is currently bringing in less that a 1/2 million a year. You need to know how much do they forecast tif collections under the existing tif # II (Twin Lakes) to be. I estimate 10 years X$500,000, or 5 million. That, out of 46 million is not a feasible plan. Nor was their initial plan of showing 19 million of TIFborrowings withoug indicating how much they forecast future TIFcollections will be. Remember, when you borrow, you not only repay the principal borrowed, but also the interest for carrying the loan. (Roughly, double the principal). Please keep in mind your priorities: Do not spend all summer on the Twin Lakes project. Work hard on our upcoming budget. Maintain our present services and be as gentle as you can on your constituents. Bite the bullet, increase our taxes as necessary to maintain current 6/21/2004