HomeMy WebLinkAbout751070.tiff 10 •
Conversation concerning I_he Charter on June 14, 1975 Page One
. . . . .it tray increase the amount of revenue up to, but not more, th .:I :mount
of revenue that would be returned to the county on the same mill levy as levied for
the preceding year upon the assessed valuation for the current year. Then it goes
through the other procedures that Bob has here. That would give you. . . Paragraph A,
if the Board be of the opinion that the amount of tax limited by the preceding section
will be insufficient for the county's needs for the current year, it may increase the
amount of revenue up to, but not more, than the amount of revenue that would be returnol
to the county on the same mill levy as levied for the preceding year upon the
(Blank on tape)
BB: The pertinent: points are: Okay, you start out, by July 31st I submit to the
department heads the forms and figures for the past year and the expenditures for the
first six months and any other info that they need. Then by August 20th, these •
department heads have to return their requests to me and then we have also provided
administrative recommendations. I check everything for correctness, summarize, add
the revenue, then on September 20th, and that's a statute date, I submit the budget
to the County Commissioners. They in turn put it on file for the public to see and
they publish a notice setting up public hearings.
?: How many days to they have to publish the notice?
BB: Well, it is a 30 day notice. So them from September 20th to October 20th, the
Commissioners, myself review everything item by item with the department heads and our
Budget Advisory Board. Then by November 15, the mill levy has to be certified to the
Assessor. This is pretty darn close because you see, if we have to submit to a vote
of the people, we would have to back up at least 30 days from November 15, that puts
you back up to say October 10. That means that we would have to have all our review
and everything finished by October 10 to decide. Now; you have to give the 30 day
notice, so if you give that on October 10, you could have the election on November 10,
then you would have 5 days to do whatever the results of the vote was.
?: Under the present law, what provision is made for this content? Do they make any?
BB: I don't think they give any.
?: I went through this process for the town of Pierce this year, and we had one heck
of a time. We got all mixed up.
? : Say this thing goes -to the vote of the people, and you got to back this up to the
October 10 for the review to finish by that tine, and you do get an okay, does that have
to go all the way through the review again ?
BB: No, we will have that all completed, so if the voters say yes, we are ready to go.
?: If they say no, you are ready to go anyway.
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Charter Conversation on June 14, 1975 Page Two
dEB: No, if they say no, then you have to go back through the rtview and cut her back.
?: Well now, here would be our situation if we took the public hearing on the budget.
You are going to have to give notice that you want your increase over and above the 5%
when you publish your notice on September 20.
?: No, that is when Bart turns it over to the Commissioners.
7: Yes but that is when it is submitted. But he has had it in there and they have been. . .
?: Yes that's night, you have worked on it for a month.
?: All right, on October 20, you are going to have the public hearing. Okay then the
people have 21 days in which to file their petition. That would put it up to the 11th
of November.
? : You have to file on the 15th.
? : Yes, now here is the case that is cited in the new statutes. The provision of this
section that the County Commissioners shall make the levy on the 15th of November is
• If for any cause they are not able to make the levy on that day, they
will make it at any time. That is Colorado and Southern Railroad vs. the Board of
Commissioners, 1921. The Citizens Commission for Fair Property Taxation vs. Warner, 1953,
it says whether statutes involving the construction steps incident to taxation are
mandatory or directory depends upon whether or not the directions given the officers
are for the benefit of the taxpayer to give him notice and an opportunity for a hearing
or for any other purpose important to him. Time for fixing the levy and delivering the
tax nort to the Treasurer not for the purpose of giving the taxpayer notice or a hearing
and are of no concern or importance to him. So far as the time for doing the acts is
concerned unquestionably it is the duty of the Board to make the levy so that the Assessor
can certify the tax list and warrant to the Treasurer. But a failure of the Commissioner
or of the Assessor to do either within the time specified in no manner affects the taxpayer
in his directory. And that is an old case, but it is apparently still good. I would
say that this procedure would raise hell if we had to go to an election then, but we could
do it.
BB: Well, the reason we don't start until the end of July, it takes us through the month
of July to get all our first six months expenditures together. If we have to back up and
start sooner, all we can give is five months actual expenditures in the current budget
and say start our procedure in June. Maybe, I suppose if this Charter passes, what the
Commissioners would do, would by ordinance, set up this budget procedure.
Charter Conversation on June 14, 1975 Page Three
BB: (Continued) One without an election and another one with an election.
?: Well Ralph, things that you brought up right there, this is wheat the Council
would come in and really take care of that. They would take care of a lot of that.
?: Or some other group. I am not the Council.
?: It would be just like the town of Pierce came up with an election held on.
December 10th this year and if the Local Affairs government hadn't sent a letter to -
Herb or something, they would have held that up one more day and the whole thing would
have coma out on the computer all right. So, they can get that thing out and to the
Treasurer after that date. Of course if they had to change the whole county run. . . .
0KB: See what I mean, if we had to come back and change that county run, we could
be into February before it would come out.
?: Yes, that would be bad.
?: Well, we are hopeful that this isn't going to happen very often.
0KB: Well, it it happens one time, that is too many.
BB: The thing that will happen, the Commissioners will shy away from an election, so
they will say that we• can live with the increase that we can do ourselves.
? : All right, we have been discussing this pretty heavily. What is wrong with the
Council running it?
GKB: What is happening right now to a degree, is our Advisory Board to the Budget,
when those departments come in and recommend to us what they need, they have either
got the support or they have got the opposition from that Advisory Board. I don't know
whether that Advisory Group could be the one that would handle something like this or
not.
?: • The Council could certainly go to them for advise.
GKB: What then could happen though, when the Advisory Board says yes, we approve all
this plus the 5% which would be bound to happen some time. I remember the Road and Bridge
budget this last year. I remember the three people who were on there, there went mixed
feelings about whether we cut that2,000,000 out or whether we didn't.
?: Basically speaking, the people we have in both areas are going to be thought-provoking
people who are basically for the county and they want to see the county run as efficiently
as possible, and if you do have problems come up that need to be taken care of, they are
going to take them into consideration. You arc always going to hove one or two who are
not, that is sometimes goods it makes everybody else study and dig more. I found this
Charter Conversation on June 14, 1975 Pape Four
?: (Continued) out on this crazy thing. Once in a while you come up with an idea
that you think is really great and somebody shoots you clean out of the saddle, so you
go back on and you dig some more. •
GKB: You would have both of those groups make that decision on the 5%, the Advisory
Board and the Council.
?: Why don't we write up about four different proposals and give them to the Commission.
BB: Why don't •you crake the County Council the Advisory Group to the Budget and eliminate
the other group. That way, we have all elected officials dealing with the budget.
?: That is not too bad of an idea.
BB: Let that same body, with your five commissioners, make the. decision as to whether
you go 5, 10 or whatever per cent increase.
7: If it gets too far out of hand, the people will take care of that.
?: If we set it up with the County Council to have the authority to increase the
limitations up to an amount not to exceed this other deal that we were talking (the
growth factor) . To give you the incr_ase up to the gtuwth. What the same mill levy would
bring on the increased assessed valuation.
?: The assessed valuation increases 10% or 20%. . .
?: That isn't giving them an open field to work in. That is still going to have the
limitation of your growth factor. But the County Council can have the power to give
any part of that up to that maximum. Then I would just as soon see them use the Budget
Committee to advise them and to discuss this thing with. They can do it anyway whether
we put it in the Charter or not. They can consult with anybody they want to. That
wouldn't give them a free hand like the State Department of Local Affairs has.
BB: I kind of like the idea of 10 elected people having this responsibility because
whatever they do, they are either going to have to take the guff from the people for
not being able to provide the service or the guff for the taxesbeing too damned high.
'hey can all be replaced in the next election.
GKB: Actually, our Advisory Board to the Budget, even though they have teen an asset
don't have that responsibility of elections. So if you take those ten people. . .
? : I kind of shy away from this, because this is a policy making group that is not
elected. But, we do have. . . .
7: The County Council can go and get their opinion, any4ay. In doing their job, they
are going to get as much input as they can from as many places as they can.
BB: We will need to involve them in the total budget process.
Charter Conversation on June 14, 1975 Page Five
GKB: Then the decision as far as your increased assessed valuation and all of the
first part that we have on tape here, would then become the decision of the Council
and the Connussioners.
?: It would be a county for a county council? I'll go along with it.
?: As long as there is a specific limitation.
GKB: We have already got the limitation in that first statement on the increased
assessed valuation.
?: If you allow the Council to go up alot more than that, that would put them on a spot.
?: Along that same thing, would it be advisable for us to make some provision that if
then=, was a real emergency, and specify what would he that emergency, to allow them to
to beyond these in event of a real emergency instead of having to go to the people.
?: Walt, we have that in here now. I think we ought to give that all to the Council.
GKB: Why don't we just refer that right out of the statutes. Pick that up right out
of the statutes, those limitations.
BB: You have got 3 mills on the Public Works Fund, you've got 1'-z mills on the Library
Fund, you have got 3 mills on -the Hospital Fund, Road and Bridge there is no levy
limitation. On the Public Welfare Fund, I think that this has been changed. We are
less than three mills. he ratio is over 2600 assessed valuation. . . .
?: I think it is 2.9 mills, isn't it?
813: It could be.
GKB: At that time under the statutes, we were a three mill levy and were paying.6.9
mills. That is where we said we are violating the other statutes, which said that
the Commissioners can't exceed the statutes regarding mill levy. The Supreme Court
said their statutes
didn't really mean a thing, if the Feds said you had to pay 20%. We had to pay 20%
which was 6.9 mills instead of 3. If in this recommendation we just refer to the
statutes, I think that will take care of it instead of specifically naming each. . .
?: Glenn, I was shocked when I heard the Welfare roan speak here at the caseload they
have. Ridiculously low, it seemed to me.
GKB: Ours are, but don't broadcast it. We put clients out here like you couldn't believe.
We have come from 6.9 mills down to 2.95 in three and a half years.
? : But they spend 25% of the money just to give it away.
GKB: This is another reason that we have taken this Manpower program over. As soon as
we get those dollars there are 120 some able-bodied heads of household that are going
on the Manpower program. We got this bill passed after the Supreme Court decision
which required able-bodied welfare recipients to work for municipal government. But the
damn legislature wouldn't put any dollars into it, so we haven't been able to enact
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Char-ter Conversation on June 14, 1975 Page Six
GKB: (Continued) that law and so both Weld and Jprimer Counties went after the Manpower
Program, so that we can put these people on our Road and Bridge System, our Parks system
and any other departments we have got where they qualify, take them off the Welfare
rolls, put them back to paying taxes and everything else.
?: What is the Supreme Court ruling in regard to what we are talking about here?
?: Your total budget excess or your mill levy excess?
BB: Have you already got it written in the Public Works fund that it cannot exceed
3 mills under any circumstances?
?: No. We are going to have to get all that in.
BB: The only way you can exceed the Public Works mill levy now is by .a vote of the
people. You can go to three mills and that is it. The same way on the Hospital.
?: We need to handle each one separately then.
(References to a little book. Pat may have an extra and Public Works has several)
?: 3 mills or a vote. Right? All right. Welfare. . .
BB: Welfare we think is 2.9 but that can be exceeded by permission of
?:. General Fund is 5. . .
BB: That can be exceeded Road and Bridge is no limitation but you have to
stay in that 5%. The Library Fund is 11 mills and that is okay. The Hospital Fund
is 3 mills.
?: That can be increased by permission?
BB: I think so.
?: I will get to Bill West and see if he can get started.
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