Remarks by Karen Hiller
86 remarks on the record, newest first · Page 4 of 4
The adopted CIP only has one of them in there. Yeah. And, and so it's a proposal to do it with a different approach to it, but to do it all. And mostly at the same time within the same timeframe that we've got, it's a matter of biting the bullet to get, to get that cash fund started. But otherwise things like dreams are just moving into that cash pot. And, and the, the single fire station, which is in for 2028, and none of the rest of them even show up on the short-term period of what we have voted on now. And so it's, again... We've all been living through this issue of what people feel like…
I'm saying it's not pushing back projects. And we've also looked in there, and there's a couple of other soft spots in there, in that the discussion we had about the CIP was that We had some prospects of being able to get a substantial amount of the I-470 and Huntoon project done with federal or state money. That's $6 million plus within the next few years. So wanting to make sure that we work on that. But again, it's a matter of getting it all, of repositioning some of that money right now for a steady and longer-term excess in dollars available for maintenance and improvements.
I do. Is that a yes? That's a yes. You're remote, so they're print copies, but I can figure out how to get you one. Okay, could we have a copy?
We are also in a position right now where there have been discussions for years about trimming our operating budget. And we've been unwilling to do that. We've had a list of a whole variety of things that we could do. And so taking that list instead of just kicking the can was a way to do both. Yeah.
If people want to do them, then the issue is not that we would do them, but if we do that with sales tax, if we did a tenth of a cent sales tax, three-year packages for each of the fire stations, either right in a row, or however, that money to pay for 100% of the design and the construction would have been accumulated from just one-tenth of a cent sales tax over three years. For each station. For each one. Right.
Thank you. I guess my thought along your line is just that separating the big ticket investments from the ongoing operating budget and also demonstrating that we're willing to make some cuts in that operating budget right now, not just kick the can and ask people to vote for a big, big sales tax that's got a bunch of stuff, different things mixed in it. We'll make it cleaner. more effective and let people, I mean, if we're responsible for figuring out the operating budget at this point, and we already voted to cap it instead of raise property taxes, then we've got to figure out how to live…
just the agenda piece, it said there was no budget cost. But if your master plan includes keeping the three vacated stations alive, then there should be a budget note for what it would, even if you're not going to have them staffed or active fire stations, but if you're going to have people working in them from PD or whoever or a museum or whatever they're going to be, there will be some cost.
I guess I got startled there. A little clarification. So even though they've done all this work with the proposals that they had in mind and are here tonight, we're starting over?
I guess I'm thinking that if people are thinking about trying to put the proposal on the sales tax, it needs to be clear before it would get put out to the public.
I guess I'm just, and there's some clarification maybe, but if there's a pretty substantial time lag that you need to do in advance of getting a commitment to put something on a ballot, I would think it has to be final before you do that.
Yeah, just think of a tight timeline if you're going to do it.