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Regular City Council Meeting Monday, September 17, 2018 Page 13 Chair Schroeder indicated that is why the Finance Commission reviews this every year because it is hard to know far into the future what is going to happen. 2019 City Manager Recommended Budget & Tax Levy Chair Schroeder noted in regard to this item, the Commission has added one statement to it. Commissioner Hodder thought the issues of relying on the City reserves comes up in their discussions and the Commission is pleased to see that the City is taking steps to remediate that issue. He stated the City may also see higher interest rates in the future and may actually need to rely less on levies if interest rates continue to increase. Mayor Roe stated the City does have substantial fund balances that the City used to take advantage with decent interest rates on them which helped reduce tax in- creases. One of the things the Council discussed when the initial recommendation from the City Manager was received, was that based on the General Fund balance and the 35% floor policy and where the City might be approaching that,might the City have to look at a different approach as to how the City removes itself from using reserves more quickly so the City is not using as much reserve and affecting that fund balance. He thought the Council was still looking at that as the process moves forward. Councilmember McGehee agreed with the statement the Commission added. She stated she called the School District regarding their tax levy and was told it will be $404 per resident increase which she thought was a significant increase, given what the City has done between 2012 and 2018. This on top of it and the fact that many of the City's citizens are on fixed income and also for those who are not, there have been no significant increases in their wages. She thought this was something for the City to be mindful of and she recognizes the City cannot do everything based on what everybody else does. Chair Schroeder asked if there was anything else the City Council would like the Finance Commission to look at to add to the list. Mayor Roe stated there is another item on the agenda that might be financial re- lated and wondered if the Council would like the Finance Commission to look at. Councilmember Willmus stated when the Council got to that item he was going to suggest Finance Commission review to find out where the City would be.