Memo- Legislative Preview with City Council
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-...,. Administrative Services -
Office of the City Manager
Memorandum
To: Representative Betty Folliard
Senator Steve Kelley
From: Steven C. Mielke, Hopkins City Manager
Date: December 1, 1998
Subject: Legislative Preview with City Council
Thank you for taking the time to be with us on December 8th to discuss legislative
issues. I have scheduled our discussions from 7:45 to 8:30 p.m. I hope that is adequate
for our purposes. We will meet in the lower level of City Hall in the Raspberry Room_
e
I'm sure you have your own set of issues to discuss but I thought it might be helpful to
suggest some issues that I believe are important to Hopkins. They include:
Repeal of sales tax on local units of government.
We spend a little over $50,000 (about 1 % of our levy) paying sales taxes to the
state. In a time of state budget surplus and property tax concerns at the local level it
seems obvious to correct this_
Dependence on property tax for local budgets.
The City of Hopkins is increasingly dependent on property taxes to pay for its'
programs. As a regressive tax it seems logical to allow or encourage all units of
government to look at alternative sources of revenue that more closely tie to ability to
pay.
Un-funded mandates.
The desire to put more accountability into local decision-making argues in favor
e of curbing un-funded mandates. True accounting for the cost of implementing mandates
and providing assistance to localities burdened with the mandates_