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Besides being generally rich, the City recently set up a$10 million dollar endowment fund to pay for road construction and improvements from the interest earned (around $700,000 a year). In a few years our debt will be pretty much paid off. We also get state aids from the state gas tax to cover the costs of maintaining roads with high traffic and designated state aid roads. Those roads included the Mc Carrons lake boulevard project a few years ago, and more recently, the Josephine road project. During 2001, the city received and used $1,755,852 of MSA funds. There was a balance of $169,394 of MSA funds being held by the state for our use. TO SUMMARIZE, WE'RE RICH AND GETTING RICHER BECAUSE: 1. WE HAVE A LARGE COMMERCIAL TAX BASE, THANKS TO ROSEDALE, HAR MAR, ETC.. OTHER NEIGHBORING CITIES CAN'T BEGIN TO KEEP UP WITH OUR FINANCIAL CAPACITY. 2. THE RECENT CLOSING OUT OF A LARGE NUMSER OF TAX INCREMENT FINANCING DISTRICTS WILL BE POURING MORE MONEY INTO OUR CITY COFFERS FROM NOW ON. I ESTIMATE UP TO $1�000�000 MORE MONEY FOR THE CITY EVERY YEAR. 3. IN JUST A FEW YEARS, WE'LL BE PRET"I'Y MUCH OUT OF DEBT THAT WE'RE NOW PAYING SEVERAL MILLION A YEAR TO PAY OFF NOW. THAT'S GOING TO FREE UP A LOT MORE MONEY. CONTINUING COLLECTIONS ON OLD ASSESSMENTS SHOULD RELIEVE THE CITY FROM MUCH PROPERTY TAX ASSESSING TO CARRY DEBT IN JUST A FEW YEARS. BECAUSE OF OUR GOOD FINANCIAL FORTUNE, AND BECAUSE MOST OF US HAVE ALREADY PAID ONCE FOR OUR ROADS AND WATER AND SEWER FACILITIES, THE ASSESSMENT ROUTE IS NEITHER A NECESSARY OR DESIl2ABLE WAY TO PAY FOR MAINTAINING OUR EXISTING INFRASTRUCTURE. The only justification for using assessments from now on is to charge raw land for their NEW infrastructure. Examples would be the School Districts Owasso Hills development, ant the upcoming NEW Twin Lakes Parkway. REPLACING, MAlNTAlN1NG AND UPGRADING OUR PRESENT INFRASTRUCTURE SHOULD BE TAI�EN CARE OF THROUGH EITHER QUARTERLY UTILITY CHARGES (WATER AND SEWER) OR ANNL7AL PROPERTY TAXES (ROADS, BUILDINGS, ETC.) OR THE RESERVES THE CITY IS ACCLJM�JLATING FOR THAT PURPOSE (ABOUT 19 MILION SO FAR). IF WE ADD TO OUR CITY FACILITIES FOR AN ADDITION TO CITY HALL, OR A COMMUNITY CENTER, THAT OF COURSE WOULD REQUIRE BORROWING ANY