馃攳
Dunwoody Special Called Meeting for July 11, 2022 (8 a.m. - 2nd public hearing for millage rate) - YouTube
Channel: unknown
[0]
on july 11th 2022 at 8 a.m to order
[4]
unless there's an objection seeing none
[6]
the meeting is called to order
[8]
councilman lambert can you please lead
[9]
us in the invocation in the pledge
[14]
at this meeting help us to make
[16]
decisions which keep us faithful to our
[17]
mission and reflect our values
[19]
give us strength to hold to our purpose
[21]
wisdom to guide us and a keen perception
[24]
to lead us
[25]
and above all keep us charitable as we
[27]
deliberate
[29]
i pledge allegiance to the flag of the
[31]
united states of america and to the
[34]
republic for which it stands one nation
[37]
under god indivisible with liberty and
[40]
justice for all
[49]
good morning mr vinnicky good morning
[52]
you are the only things on our agenda
[54]
this morning
[60]
can you see the presentation
[62]
hey
[63]
cool let's see if it works
[67]
still up there
[69]
good uh mayor and council this is the
[71]
second of three required public hearings
[73]
by state law uh just for the public's
[76]
information not only did we have the
[78]
three required hearings basically we had
[80]
three other town halls which addressed
[81]
this and i think if memory serves we had
[84]
three other separate council meetings in
[86]
there so this will end up being nine
[88]
opportunities for public comment on the
[89]
budget so as far as input
[92]
above and beyond the city has gone on
[94]
this uh let's go a little bit through
[96]
what's required on these
[98]
today's purpose is because the millage
[100]
rate was not rolled back we are required
[103]
to have three public hearings on it now
[105]
whether or not we were moving to 3.04 or
[108]
keeping it 2.74 we would still have to
[110]
have the three hearings uh property tax
[113]
is the only tax source where public
[115]
hearings are required on income tax if
[117]
your income goes up and you pay more
[119]
income tax you are not required to have
[120]
public hearings on sales tax as sales
[123]
goes up you're not required to have
[124]
public hearings on increases in sales
[126]
tax property tax is the only state tax
[128]
where this hearing is required uh the
[130]
city of dunwoody has proposed to
[132]
increase their millage rate from 2.74
[134]
mills
[135]
which to be honest for most homeowners
[138]
is really 1.74 mills
[140]
raise it to 3.04 mills which would still
[144]
nominally and you've got this backup in
[145]
your uh packet for tonight would still
[147]
be nominally the lowest rate in dekalb
[150]
county for any city um
[152]
that levies it we still have one city
[154]
that's not living um so in that case
[157]
even with this increase dunwoody would
[159]
still be the lowest tax rate in the area
[161]
uh for a new home and we use the 500 000
[164]
barometer here we're looking at about a
[166]
57 increase a year and then for those
[169]
that are frozen we're staying around at
[171]
42 so no matter what your house is in
[173]
this area would see their first tax
[175]
increase since incorporation and that is
[177]
a fact however for anyone that moved
[180]
into the city since incorporation or
[181]
what here is the first one your taxes
[183]
have never gone up in the entire history
[185]
that you've lived here just to clarify
[187]
that is strictly about municipal taxes
[190]
just remember they everyone gets one
[192]
bill so
[193]
while you're doing the slide
[195]
just want to make sure that people
[196]
understand that the county or the
[198]
different county funds may have raised
[200]
as well as the school system
[203]
uh the most obvious uh question with
[205]
this is if the city is financially
[207]
healthy which linda neighbors finance
[209]
director myself do say that we're
[210]
financially healthy uh why is there a
[213]
need of tax increase and what has
[214]
happened is that the ongoing revenues
[217]
and the ongoing expenditures do not
[220]
match when the city was created and if
[222]
you look at the incorporation study that
[224]
created it it was envisioning a minimal
[227]
police system and a minimal park system
[229]
and both those now are at a full-fledged
[232]
city level and in fact with the opening
[233]
of brook run and the purchase with two
[235]
more properties we have a crown jewel of
[237]
a park system the tax levies that were
[240]
done the 2.74 mills and the 1 mil
[243]
exemption and the property tax freeze
[246]
were not even taken into account during
[248]
the carl vinson study in fact the carl
[250]
vinson study indexes property tax for
[253]
inflation uh therefore it actually kind
[256]
of says the freeze wouldn't exist uh
[258]
there are flaws in the study there were
[260]
assumptions made at that time and
[261]
current revenues and current
[262]
expenditures do not meet
[264]
could the city do something and not
[266]
raise taxes yes it would not increase
[268]
services to the level that the citizens
[270]
are looking at
[271]
uh this that you see on the chart are
[273]
the three scenarios for
[275]
what we've got for this year's budget
[277]
the one on the left is the original
[278]
budget is passed the middle one is one
[281]
based off of 2.74 mills and the third
[284]
one is based off of 3.04 mills to go
[287]
from top to bottom what you're seeing is
[288]
the starting fund balance estimated 22.5
[291]
million
[292]
tax revenue other revenues expenses and
[295]
then the ending fund balance and the
[297]
ending fund balance is what we need to
[298]
concentrate on and at the bottom there's
[300]
two numbers to look for months reserved
[303]
which across these three are 7.91 7.25
[307]
and 7.67
[310]
that number at minimum needs to be four
[312]
so in that case
[314]
in all scenarios of doing this we're
[316]
still significantly above fund balance
[318]
now the city could also use fund balance
[320]
to operate over the next five years it's
[322]
not recommended by staff nor is it
[324]
recommended by best practices ongoing
[326]
revenues and ongoing expenditures should
[328]
match we have the certain thing where we
[330]
basically hotel motel we're still
[333]
suspect even though those numbers have
[335]
gone up uh so we're still being
[336]
conservative to all our projections the
[338]
last number you need to look at is the
[340]
bottom one and that's the structural
[341]
deficit when the budget was passed in
[343]
last october we were going to plan to
[346]
use 4 million or 3.9 million of fund
[348]
balance
[349]
based upon new revenues we're looking at
[351]
2.2 and this would switch it down to 1.1
[355]
million of fund balance which is a very
[357]
manageable part if the city ever went to
[359]
go get rated by a rating agency the
[361]
structural deficit and the use of fund
[363]
balance but would be one of the main
[364]
categories you would look at so the city
[366]
always needs to be proactive in
[368]
improving this
[369]
next up is the short-term forecast which
[371]
is what the city council has started to
[373]
do over the past basically three years
[376]
it started to look at doing a true
[377]
five-year funded cip and also looking at
[380]
operating forecasts now one of the
[382]
things this does is it does very
[384]
conservative revenues and we'll agree
[385]
with that and this is also the beginning
[387]
of the forecasting part of the city as
[389]
it grows into what i call its adolescent
[391]
stage
[392]
basically you need to make sure the
[394]
green line stays above the blue one
[395]
that's your number of months reserved
[397]
above the required reserve if you take a
[400]
look this crosses in the 2025 area we
[403]
are fairly comfortable in the finance
[405]
department and with uh city staff at
[407]
still keeping this because we're very
[409]
conservative revenue with this 3.04
[412]
increase not only could we open certain
[414]
parts as we go along we could also do
[416]
four percent raises and keep up with
[418]
health care costs to keep ourselves
[419]
competitive with our neighboring
[420]
jurisdiction just again i'm sorry but
[422]
you said the 3.04 increase we're not
[425]
increasing it by three mills just want
[427]
to be clear that we speak what we're
[429]
saying we've talked
[432]
description of what we're doing so we're
[434]
in the increase would be what's the
[436]
number point
[438]
thank you
[442]
uh let me get back on track um okay the
[444]
real impact to homes if you take a look
[446]
here your change is basically from 33 to
[449]
69 on there it's
[452]
basically minimal for any house and
[453]
again you're one of the lowest as far as
[455]
city rates in the area taking a look at
[457]
your tax bill as you can see most of it
[459]
is dedicated to the school system even
[461]
with this change the city portion would
[464]
only be less than five percent
[467]
uh driving the revenue change even
[469]
though we do have a growing tax digest
[471]
it has not been consistent throughout
[473]
the city's history we've had three or
[474]
four years of
[477]
a decrease in fun decrease in the digest
[480]
and in that case we we don't want to
[482]
project three or four percent we tend to
[484]
project around two percent and this year
[486]
we came in at a six percent growth so
[488]
there is growth that's happening it's
[490]
just not dependable off of it your other
[492]
revenue sources are pretty much stagnant
[494]
and frozen when we start looking at
[495]
fines they don't increase over time when
[498]
you start looking at things such as the
[500]
smaller tax amounts they don't tend to
[502]
increase
[503]
this again shows your increase of year
[505]
over year for your
[508]
digest uh positive and negative as you
[510]
can tell there was three years where it
[511]
went down for various reasons um this is
[514]
kind of like one that we're starting to
[515]
show that because property and
[517]
residential taxes are frozen the share
[520]
of the tax burden has fallen to
[522]
commercial properties and we get much
[523]
more from commercial than we do from
[525]
from residential
[527]
uh so what's the main goal the main goal
[528]
of raising the millage cap is to make
[530]
sure that over the next five and raise
[532]
to the millage cap due the next five
[534]
years
[535]
so we can make it and to make sure that
[537]
since property taxes are frozen we've
[538]
adjusted it as we can with a cap that
[540]
was instituted by the city leaders
[543]
and with that i'll
[544]
open the floor for public comment
[548]
um so i need to open the public hearing
[552]
is there any objection to opening the
[554]
public hearing
[555]
seeing none
[557]
the public hearing is opened
[559]
and now
[561]
we need to have public comment we'll
[562]
have 10 minutes against
[564]
and 10 minutes four correct and so we
[567]
will start with 10 minutes for
[570]
the
[572]
millage rate
[574]
increase
[576]
and if you could just step up and
[578]
introduce yourself please
[580]
good morning mayor council robert
[581]
wittenstein 1146 bordeaux court uh i'm
[584]
here to encourage you to go ahead and
[586]
raise the millage rate
[588]
um but i'm also going to suggest
[590]
something that you already know which is
[592]
that the real crux of the problem here
[595]
is
[596]
the assessment freeze
[598]
for residential properties and so i'm
[601]
also going to suggest that one of the
[602]
things you make a priority of is to talk
[605]
to the state legislature about
[607]
sunsetting that over the next five years
[609]
and get an item onto the november ballot
[613]
either this year or next year
[615]
that gradually over the next five years
[618]
sunsets
[619]
that freeze that's the real crux of the
[622]
problem and as long as that exists
[625]
you're going to continue to have this
[626]
structural problem so by all means go
[628]
ahead increase the millage rate but
[631]
particularly in an environment where
[633]
inflation is rising faster right we got
[635]
we got a real breather for a number of
[637]
years there where inflation was so small
[639]
that it didn't really increase our
[641]
expenses that much from year to year
[644]
those days are gone and so now
[646]
this increase to 3.04 is not going to
[649]
hold us for very long and the real the
[651]
real issue is that we gotta we got to
[653]
get our tax digest producing the taxes
[656]
that will support the residents who are
[658]
using the services thank you thank you
[660]
is there anyone else who would like to
[662]
speak for this change in the millage
[664]
rate
[666]
just step up and introduce yourself
[668]
please morning city council my name is
[669]
ali i will first start by thanking you
[671]
for getting up here this morning
[673]
forgetting you guys this morning it's 8
[674]
am monday morning we're getting here at
[676]
8 am monday morning so thank you for
[677]
that um second i actually back up
[679]
everything robert say and um i think he
[681]
makes some excellent points i do want to
[684]
encourage city council to increase the
[685]
millage rate um when it comes down to it
[687]
in the simplest form i do trust city
[689]
council and the people who work in the
[691]
offices here that if you're requesting
[693]
it or if you're suggesting any type of
[695]
military increase i am sure you've done
[697]
due diligence i'm sure that it is
[699]
necessary i'm sure it is the right
[700]
decision so based on trust i would move
[703]
forward with um saying we should
[704]
increase the millage rate i did do my
[706]
own kind of uh open records request i
[708]
have looked in a little bit into the
[710]
dunwoody checkbook i've looked into the
[711]
reserve funds i do agree especially in
[713]
our environment with inflation we kind
[715]
of need to stay ahead of it so i'm
[717]
perfectly fine with it
[718]
i did run the numbers as well and it is
[721]
it is um accurate i mean it comes down
[723]
to like a cup of coffee from starbucks
[726]
uh
[726]
a month to be able to improve our
[728]
quality of life if the money is going
[729]
towards police departments if the money
[731]
is going towards parks i can't see how
[733]
anyone could really object about that i
[735]
think a lot of people really just want
[736]
to make sure the money is used correctly
[738]
i trust that you guys will be i haven't
[740]
seen any giant escalades lining up the
[742]
front parking lot but i did see a bunch
[744]
of new police cruisers so we already
[746]
know that the money is generally being
[747]
used correctly i do want to encourage
[749]
that you know if this extra revenue
[751]
comes in that we strongly
[754]
look into possibly allocating a lot of
[756]
those funds into the police department
[758]
i've done a lot of research into our
[759]
neighboring
[761]
our neighboring cities and they have
[763]
kind of been very proactive with this
[764]
they've done a lot of money at their
[765]
police departments and the biggest fear
[767]
as i've spoken to in other city council
[769]
members is city council meetings and i
[771]
will in the future again is ideally
[773]
looking at um ideally looking at just
[776]
making sure we stay competitive we stay
[778]
safe as a city that we continue growing
[780]
as a city just as individuals would save
[782]
more money in this environment i think
[784]
it makes all the sense for the city to
[786]
do so as well so i support this decision
[788]
i encourage the decision thank you
[791]
thank you
[793]
all right is there any other public
[795]
comment
[797]
seeing none i unless there's an
[799]
objection i close this public hearing
[802]
seeing no objection the public hearing
[803]
is closed and now it's counsel
[806]
and um us if we have any questions or
[808]
comments for jay anybody
[811]
i just
[813]
want to clarify that we have police
[814]
salaries on the agenda tonight correct
[817]
mr vinicky that is correct right so
[820]
great anybody else
[822]
seeing none
[824]
then um i need a motion for adjournment
[826]
i move to adjourn by rob
[829]
second second by tom any objections
[832]
seeing none
[833]
uh the motion carries unanimously we are
[835]
adjourned see you tonight
Most Recent Videos:
You can go back to the homepage right here: Homepage