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Show p-i- t ! . itj. r - - xi-:m & ' 'M: W i'? -: ; : i 'if I 1 1 - J 1 ' 1 I .... Cedar Hills Decides Not to Revisit Budget 2) Do a web survey instead of the Decisions 2011 survey. Neither cut was debated in the discussion that followed. Council member Jim Perry suggested revisiting the budget bud-get in November, since the tax doesn't go into effect till January Janu-ary 1. Kirk said revisiting the budget bud-get now was a gesture, since the city had already increased utility bills "because of circumstances we can't control." He added that he would have raised the issue during the budget hearings in 1, a budget amendment would have to be made in September to give the full three months. Council Member Scott Jackman said, "The reality of things is that costs continue to rise, so a cut now will mean a larger increase later." Perry suggested waiting a year to see how it fits into the 2012 budget. "I don't know that this, in my mind, is the most unfair tax." He also said that a tax cut also means service ser-vice cuts. Council Member Marisa by Harlow Clark Cedar Hills' city council voted July 13 not to revisit the budget. The discussion was scheduled after council member Ken Kirk raised questions June 15 about raising the telecommunications telecommu-nications service provider tax from 3.3 to 3.5 percent. In a memo to the council, Finance Fi-nance Director Rebecca Tehero recommended cutting $2,000 from Spring Cleanup, and $3,000 from next year's Family Festival budget if the council repealed the tax increase. Kirk said he disagreed with Tehero's proposed cuts, because Spring Cleanup is "important to beautification of the city," and he didn't want to touch the family fam-ily festival budget. Kirk said his first option would be amending the budget to reflect sales tax increases rather than suggesting cuts. "McDonald's, across the street from the high school, is opening in the next 10 days," and should bring in the $5,000, he said. "That'd be my first proposal. If that's not accepted by the council then I have a proposal for reduction of some of the items in the budget," he said: 1) Cut the library reimbursement. reimburse-ment. Kirk said he believes only a small portion of the community commu-nity uses it, and he doesn't want to tax the whole community for their benefit. $4,000 of the reimbursement re-imbursement would allow the city to roll the tax back from 3.5 to 3.3 percent. The full library reimbursement budget would let them reduce the tax to 3 percent. "By reducing this telecommunications tele-communications tax we directly affect all the households,- not just a few." He acknowledged that the tax increase is very small, about 18 cents a month, but said it's not the dollar amount, but the principle, the duty elected officials of-ficials have "to keep taxes to a minimum." the spring, but the tax "wasn't given to us until after the approved ap-proved budget." But there was also a problem prob-lem with waiting for November. Novem-ber. After some discussion Finance Director Rebecca Tehero Te-hero confirmed that a change has to be made at least three months in advance, so any changes made in November wouldn't go into effect until April. To be effective January Wright asked, "Can we even do a Spring Clean-up for $2,000?" and there was some discussion of increasing the budget for the clean-up, restoring re-storing funds that had been previously cut. Kirk's motion to notice a hearing on amending the budget was defeated four to one. "I ap- preciate the discussion. I think that was very healthy. Thank you everyone," he said. |
