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Session 1783 - Budget Meeting May 17, 2000 M ISCELLAN EO US: Mr. Ollendorff passed out a report that listed the financial condition of the LCRA, two TIF districts and the IDA. The LCRA has no money. Mr. Ollendorff reported on the recent state supreme court ruling regarding cellular telephone companies and their auxiliary services. They do not pay a utility tax on a lot of their services, because they claim that they are not really a phone company. Sunset Hills took Southwestern Bell Mobile Systems to court and Sunset Hills won. So now the law is that mobile telephone systems have to pay municipal utility taxes. John Mulligan has sent letters to AT&T Wireless, Southwestern Bell Mobile, Ameritech, etc. outlining the case and asking them to remit the money they owe us for the last five years. There is a five year statute of limitations for this type of payment in Missouri. He does not want the City Attorney to start any litigation, however, until he gets a report on what that might cost. Mr. Ollendorff passed out a new program indicator page for the Fire Department to be replaced in the budget book. Mr. Ollendorff said that Mr. Norfleet has prepared a new report outlining the fee increase for ambulance service, proposing to go to $400 for the base, $75 for various services and $6 per mile for transport. Mr. Ollendorff reported that Mr. Norfleet did some checking up on the not for profits and when they go off the tax rolls. The County does pro rate it, just as Mr. Schoomer said. If they buy the property in June, then they have to pay the taxes for half the year. Mr. Ollendorff said that a few years ago, the City obtained some property and in the fall we got the tax bill. Mr. Norfleet called the County and told them that the City owns this property, so the City should not have to pay any tax. The County told him that no, it was on the tax roll in January, so now you have to pay the taxes on it. Now they have changed their story, and' Mr. Norfleet was told that the City should have been more insistent. Mr. Lieberman asked Mr. Norfleet to get this policy in writing. Mr. OIlendorff stated that Mr. Norfleet did a complete update on the reserves information. Last June we had $6.1 million in reserve, and some has been used during this year. We estimate that we will end this fiscal year at $4.8 million. This budget recommends allocating $576,000, which will leave us at the end June 2001 with an approximate $4.2 million undesignated balance. We should know this time next year what kind of losses we will suffer from the Census, utility deregulation, Internet, etc. Besides the $4.2 million, we will still be setting aside 15% of the general fund. Responding to Mr. Lieberman, Mr. Ollendorff stated that these figures were based on the General Fund expenditures only. The other funds all have their own sources of revenue. Mr. Wagner thinks that the 15% reserve is what the City needs.