With Truth in Taxation hearings behind it, the City Council went ahead with setting the tax levy and adopting its fiscal 2000 budget Monday.

Tuesday, December 14, 1999

With Truth in Taxation hearings behind it, the City Council went ahead with setting the tax levy and adopting its fiscal 2000 budget Monday.

A tax hearing took place a week ago Monday, but was not widely attended. Yesterday the council adopted the $2,003,325 property tax levy discussed at the earlier hearing.

The $2 million levy was the same as proposed at a public hearing last September.

The council unanimously adopted the budget and appropriated $11,271,285 for the general fund. The budget expenditures are broken down by department.

The City Council also adopted a resolution Monday setting monthly rates for cars seized by the police department. The cars belonged to private citizens and have been seized as a result of drug forfeiture or alleged drunk driving offenses. The cars are often stored while the cases are being reviewed. Upon conviction, the cars are forfeited to the city and may be sold at auction.

Approximately 16 cars are being stored by the city in hangers at the airport. According to City Manager Paul Sparks, the cars are occupying hangers that would normally be open to rent.

&uot;The city gets no money from hanger rentals while those cars are there,&uot; Sparks said. &uot;There are so many cars now that, we have to find another place for them.&uot;

A resolution introduced by Sparks would charge a $50 per month rental fee on each car. The charge would apply retroactively and would be recovered by the city from money coming from the vehicle sales.

&uot;The money received from the sale of the vehicles is restricted,&uot; Sparks said. &uot;It does not go into the general fund. If we charge a storage fee, we may recover it from the vehicle sales.&uot;

The fee is similar to what would be charged to store the cars at a private facility, Sparks said.

In other business, the council passed a resolution correcting terms of a contract for the International Association of Firefighters. The contract was brought to the council for approval last month, but contained an error in health insurance provisions. According to the provisions in the original contract, 80 percent of the family coverage would be paid by the city and 20 percent by the employees.

The contract was changed so it would read that 75 percent of family coverage would be paid by the city and 25 percent by employees.

A resolution was passed adopting health insurance rates for city employees in the coming year. Sparks said there will be no increase in health insurance premiums this year.

&uot;We are doing quite a bit better than last year, in the area of health insurance claims, and our insurance administrator felt we could manage the insurance plan without any additional cost,&uot; Sparks said.