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During a work session before Monday night’s city council meeting, state Sen. Gene Dornink updated members on what was happening at the Capitol. 

“We were excited because we had a big surplus,” he told council members. “And our focus was to give the money back, except we wanted to spend a little money where there was emergency or crisis areas.”

Dornink informed the committee he wanted to remove a Social Security tax, noting Minnesota is one of “just a few states” that taxes Social Security for seniors. He also wanted permanent middle-class tax relief.

His goal was to lower the tax on the first tax bracket by 2.5%, which he said would save $1,000 for families making $100,000. That did not happen.

“The biggest thing was that we didn’t get to vote on it,” he said. “It was stuck in the House.”

Dornink said he wanted to address paying back the Unemployment Insurance Trust Fund.

“That fund had pretty much been depleted, and so that was for our workers,” he said. “It definitely was nice to have that, a lot of unemployment, people were unemployed with the pandemic and so they still got paid.”

According to Dornink, businesses were going to face double-digit premium increases.

Ultimately, the unemployment fund was replenished, along with pay for front-line workers during the pandemic, and he said people were just starting to apply for that now.

Another bill that passed was an agriculture bill that will give money for broadband internet service. 

“I think there was right at 100 bills that were passed,” he said. “We didn’t get all of our work done. The surplus kind of made things more complicated because normally it’s a policy year, so policy and bonding are the two big things that’s normally done on an off-year.”

The bonding bill did not pass because it has to originate in the House, and nothing was presented to the Senate, a fact that concerned Councilman Jason Howland.

“As far as the bonding bill goes, the wastewater treatment plant is a huge one for this community,” he said. “And if we’re not able to receive those dollars … it’s a big hit to this community, and to hear that it may not have even been on the initial bonding bill is quite frightening actually, I think, for this community.”  

Mayor Vern Rasmussen Jr. said it would be a disgrace to the community if a bonding bill was not passed.

“That wastewater treatment [doesn’t] give us a check back …  for $1,000,” he said. “If you help us with that wastewater treatment plant, that’s going to put $1,000 every year in the pocket of the people for 40 years, and that’s every community involved in this.” 

In new business, council members heard from Rebecca Kurtz with Ehlers & Associates, a public finance advisement firm, regarding a tax abatement for $450,000 in repairs to the city arena. According to Kurtz, the city may use its tax abatement authority to pledge tax revenue toward paying off bonds that finance city projects.

“From a practical perspective, it is a process that ultimately allows the city to levy taxes to pay the debt service on that portion of the bond without having to go through a referendum process for the voter approval, which would have caused some challenges with timing to get that approval process along with the expense of a special election,” she said.

The abatement would have a 10-year term.

“The challenge that communities have is that for projects such as repairs and maintenance to the arena roof, there really are only two ways that the city can finance that through general obligation bonds,” she said.

Kurtz said this would ultimately create a tax levy for the city to pay debt service, and would not impact assessed value of the parcel or property taxes as they currently are.

“Approving this gives you the authority to issue debt and levy taxes to pay for those repairs,” she said.

The council held a public hearing at the June 13 meeting, at which no one spoke, then voted to proceed with the tax abatement.

In unfinished business:

-the council read an ordinance that would approve the annexation of Tom Norby’s property. 

-passed a resolution approving a Broadway Ridge Urban Renewal Grant application for reimbursement of up to 50% of costs associated with the building’s stabilization, tuck-pointing, fabrication and installation of a new fire escape and garage door. The amount of reimbursement is $25,583.72.

-had a first reading regarding a pet waste ordinance. Pet waste will be picked up immediately when on public property, and another change regarded updating language on how to properly dispose of waste.

-held a first reading regarding limitations on wastewater discharge. Federal limits were updated and the cadmium limit was lowered to .11 mg/liter for any one day. The local limit was at .15 mg/l.

-passed a resolution for the proposed project that involves drainage tiling and other drainage improvement at Snyder Field, which includes building a new stormwater pond near the intersection of Hershey Street and Bridge Avenue at a cost of $475,000. 

Because there were no projects in the 2022 Capital Improvement Plan for Snyder Ballfields, the council approved moving $475,000 of the 2023 project to 2022 and fund it with fund 401.

-passed a resolution to obtain funds for a Bearcat Armored Tactical Unit, which will be used by the Violent Crimes Enforcement Team (South Central Drug Investigation Unit).

-The city declared a proclamation for Juneteenth Independence Day. 

-Brandi Krenz was sworn in as the first full-time, female firefighter for the city by Deputy Fire Chief Jeff Laskowski. Krenz had been an on-call firefighter.