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Fiscal Responsibility
Property tax statements for 2008 are quite revealing. There are eleven
line items listed for various tax levies. In an analysis of one of these
statements, the total property tax and special assessments due was
down slightly for taxes due in 2008, compared with the taxes due in
2007.
It is interesting to note the reality in this tax statement, that there was
an increase in three of the taxing levies. Of the three, the City of
Burnsville accounted for 71% of the increased taxes due for 2008.
Dakota County and Regional Transit Rail combined to make up the
other 29%.
It is particularly disturbing on at least two fronts that Burnsville should
lead the way in increasing taxes. First, the propensity of the three-
person majority – Dan Gustafson, Elizabeth Kautz and Liz Workman
(who served on the council at the time the levies were passed), to
spend without a plan. Examples of this are the construction of the
Performing Arts Center which will eventually cost about $55,000,000,
the adjacent parking deck at about $7,000,000 and the surface parking
lot built across the street from the mayor’s residence – an unneeded
lot that required major deviations from the zoning ordinance. When
several competent developers investigated the potential for the
proposed PAC, they all came to the same conclusion: the
development, including the deck, was not a viable operation, and all of
them backed away from the commitments to this concept.
On another front, it can easily be said that these spending patterns are
evidence of fiscal irresponsibility. Consider that Tax Increment Funds
from maturing TIF Districts will be used in connection with the
Performing Arts Center and the deck. The original plan for these funds
was to bring relief to the taxpayers of Burnsville in the form of tax
reduction. Since this money is being diverted to the purposes named
here, it has the effect of increasing your tax liability. You can more
than likely see the picture – instead of the city portion of your tax bill
going down as we expected, it increased by far and away the largest
percentage of all the taxing authorities. That kind of action is
undesirable any time, but is especially troublesome at this time of
economic distress and uncertainty. And you can count on that
continued lavish spending as long as free spenders are allowed to
represent us.
A more recent giveaway is the gift of land in the Heart of City - land
previously described as valuable – in exchange for a restaurant
developer who promised to build a pump house and public access rest
rooms in exchange for the free land. No bids had been solicited for
the construction of the pump house and rest rooms, but it was said
they “thought” the cost to construct them would be about the value of
the land. The frosting on this cake was that they then granted
deviations from required parking under zoning ordinances to a minor
fraction of the spaces usually required. Oh, and why was that pump
house needed? Because the water feature in Nicollet Commons Park
is being utilized as a pool, and as such, the Health Department requires
it to meet certain requirements - all of which required additional
expense of $500,000 in upgrades to the pool. None of these
requirements were apparently investigated or planned when the water
feature was initially designed and installed.
Property tax statements for 2008 are quite revealing. There are eleven
line items listed for various tax levies. In an analysis of one of these
statements, the total property tax and special assessments due was
down slightly for taxes due in 2008, compared with the taxes due in
2007.
It is interesting to note the reality in this tax statement, that there was
an increase in three of the taxing levies. Of the three, the City of
Burnsville accounted for 71% of the increased taxes due for 2008.
Dakota County and Regional Transit Rail combined to make up the
other 29%.
It is particularly disturbing on at least two fronts that Burnsville should
lead the way in increasing taxes. First, the propensity of the three-
person majority – Dan Gustafson, Elizabeth Kautz and Liz Workman
(who served on the council at the time the levies were passed), to
spend without a plan. Examples of this are the construction of the
Performing Arts Center which will eventually cost about $55,000,000,
the adjacent parking deck at about $7,000,000 and the surface parking
lot built across the street from the mayor’s residence – an unneeded
lot that required major deviations from the zoning ordinance. When
several competent developers investigated the potential for the
proposed PAC, they all came to the same conclusion: the
development, including the deck, was not a viable operation, and all of
them backed away from the commitments to this concept.
On another front, it can easily be said that these spending patterns are
evidence of fiscal irresponsibility. Consider that Tax Increment Funds
from maturing TIF Districts will be used in connection with the
Performing Arts Center and the deck. The original plan for these funds
was to bring relief to the taxpayers of Burnsville in the form of tax
reduction. Since this money is being diverted to the purposes named
here, it has the effect of increasing your tax liability. You can more
than likely see the picture – instead of the city portion of your tax bill
going down as we expected, it increased by far and away the largest
percentage of all the taxing authorities. That kind of action is
undesirable any time, but is especially troublesome at this time of
economic distress and uncertainty. And you can count on that
continued lavish spending as long as free spenders are allowed to
represent us.
A more recent giveaway is the gift of land in the Heart of City - land
previously described as valuable – in exchange for a restaurant
developer who promised to build a pump house and public access rest
rooms in exchange for the free land. No bids had been solicited for
the construction of the pump house and rest rooms, but it was said
they “thought” the cost to construct them would be about the value of
the land. The frosting on this cake was that they then granted
deviations from required parking under zoning ordinances to a minor
fraction of the spaces usually required. Oh, and why was that pump
house needed? Because the water feature in Nicollet Commons Park
is being utilized as a pool, and as such, the Health Department requires
it to meet certain requirements - all of which required additional
expense of $500,000 in upgrades to the pool. None of these
requirements were apparently investigated or planned when the water
feature was initially designed and installed.
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