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Regular City Council Meeting Monday, September 14, 2015 Page 25 Mr. Miller noted that the City levy and budget infonnation essentially represented the s�ne information provided in the City Manager recommended budget pre- sented in July of 2015. Mayor Roe noted that this action would set a preliminary City and RHRA levy for certification to Ramsey County and subsequently made available to taxpayers showing the impacts of each taxing authority's preliminary levy requests for 2016; with a final levy set in December of 2015 for 2016 payable taxes. Specific to the City Preliininary levy as recommended, Councilmeinber Willmus stated that he had no particular problem with it, but reserved his ability to look at it more closely before year-end. Regarding the RHRA levy, in light of previous action, Councilmember Willmus suggested setting a"zero dollar" preliminary levy (as distinct from a flat levy) rather than the RHRA's requested levy. As mentioned earlier in tonight's discussion, City Manager Trudgeon advised that if the City Council chose to adopt a certain dollar amount after taking their previ- ous formal action, he could not assure that the levy amount could be retained moving forward and based on fiiture decisions. If the City Council felt a need to adopt a"zero dollar" preliminary RHRA levy, given their cash reserves, Mr. Trudgeon stated that it would be appropriate. However, Mr. Trudgeon also noted that under the transition from the RHRA to another model if extra dollars were needed, there could be complications. Mr. Trudgeon stated the only other option would be to make it part of the General Fund levy, but recognizing potential coin- plexities, he was not sure that created the clearest path either. Councilmember Willmus clarified that his rationale was based on knowing the RHRA's cash position right now, opining that they would be hard-pressed to ex- pend those dollars that he estimated to be in the range of $2.5 million over the next year with their current HRA functions. City Manager Trudgeon concurred with that statement based on current RHRA reserves; and agreed with the approximate funds of $2.5 million figure, pending some transfers out. Councilmember McGehee agreed with the comments of Councilmeinber Willmus; opining that at this point she had no problem with the 2016 proposed preliininary budget, while she had several questions that were not significant for this evening's discussion. Councilmember McGehee also spolce in support of a "zero dollar" preliminary RHRA levy, similar to requests in previous years by the RHRA, as the cleanest way to proceed. Councilmember Etten asked if there was any advantage for a zero levy versus simply eliminating it.