[MissoulaGov] Committee Update 8/27/08

[Bob Jaffe]

Greetings,

This morning we started with a general update from Ellen at the health
department.  We learned about their ongoing breast feeding program. The
health department has taken a lead role in promoting breast feeding as the
only food for the first six months as a public health goal.  You may have
seen the breast feeding rest area or "Breast Stop" set up at the Roots
festival. We saw a cool t-shirt this weekend. It said "I make milk.What's
your super power?"

The health department is also working on work place compliance for some of
the new laws that require appropriate breast feeding facilities.  This
mostly just means a quiet private area and clean refrigerated space for
expressed milk. They have not had any resistance from anyone they have
worked with. 

She also spoke about Air quality and the new PM2.5 standards.  They have
developed a new chart that describes air quality instead of the "stage 1 air
alerts." They are trying to come up with something more descriptive of the
conditions. The new one has categories like "unhealthy for children." 

They also continue to work on immunization campaigns and contingency
planning for an influenza epidemic.  We also learned they have an offer in
on the old Creamery building.  They hope to move the health care practice
over there.

 

In PAZ our main agenda item was the Garden District subdivision being
developed by the housing authority.  The developers had met with staff
during the week and had resolved just about all of the issues that snagged
the project last week. It appeared to be a really good example of developers
working collaboratively with the Parks department and OPG to solve some
problems. Of course in this case the developers are a quasi-governmental
agency but I'm sure it could work for the private sector too.

We were able to work through the remaining issues and vote to approve the
subdivision by the end of the meeting. We even got out a few minutes early.

 

The main event for the afternoon was the vote to approve of the budget.  It
split on the expected seven to five line. Mayor Engen made a great
presentation summarizing the various revenue numbers we have seen and put
them in context with the last several years. He also reviewed the City's
efforts to "tighten its belt" as so many people have been calling for.

The original executive budget called for a general fund levy increase of
1.72%. This has been increased to 2.92%.  In between those two numbers the
department of revenue lowered our mill value by 1.3%. So the increase in our
mills did not yield as much money as anticipated. We also had an
unanticipated liability insurance increase of $150,000.

Back when the administrative budget was put together the finance department
had overestimated our property tax revenue number from the state. But they
also made a calculation error which incorrectly reduced our levy cap. So the
initial budget was constrained to fit within the reduced levy cap. So when
the revenue number came in low, but we subsequently figured out the correct
levy cap, we were still in good shape. So regardless of what the Missoulian
continues to report we are not short on funds. It only appeared that way
until the error in the levy cap was found.

Another twist is that the department of revenue corrected an error made some
eight years ago and transferred $1 million from our tax base into tax
increment finance districts. This sucks for the general fund but is great
for MRA. I'm sure we will see that money go to good use. 

Overall, the city mill levy is going up 4.82%. 2.92% or $951,000 is for the
general fund. 0% is for city health insurance coverage. And 1.90%, or
$414,000 is for voter approved debt (aquatics, fire stations, etc.) On a
$225,000 home that is an increase of $26 a year in city taxes. So that works
out to about $48/month for the average household for police, fire, parks,
streets, and all the other services the city provides. Still less than the
price of cable.

 

 Thanks for your interest,

 

 

Bob Jaffe

Missoula City Council, Ward 3

 <mailto:bjaffe at ci.missoula.mt.us> bjaffe at ci.missoula.mt.us

406-728-1052

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