City Council Meeting Date: January 21, 2020
To: Mayor and City Council
City Administrator
From: Ben Martig, City Administrator
Title
Consideration of Resolution Supporting the Authority to Impose a Local Sales Tax to Fund Specific Capital Improvements Providing Regional Benefit, to Establish the Duration of the Tax and the Revenue to be Raised by the Tax, and to Authorize the City to Issue Bonds Supported by the Tax Revenue.
Body
Action Requested:
Staff recommends approval of the Resolution Supporting the Authority to Impose a Local Sales Tax to Fund Specific Capital Improvements Providing Regional Benefit, to Establish the Duration of the Tax and the Revenue to be Raised by the Tax, and to Authorize the City to Issue Bonds Supported by the Tax Revenue.
Summary Report:
The City Council has expressed interest to consider options related to a local options sales tax for parks and recreation purposes. There was interest in various regional park improvements such as potential River Corridor Parks Improvements (potential examples as Riverwalk, Ames, Bridge Square, Lion's Riverside, Cannon River Regional Park, Babcock, etc.). Additionally, there was interest to explore some regional parks improvements around Sports, Health and Recreation (potential examples such as Sechlar, Spring Creek Park, NCRC/FiftyNorth senior recreation, Memorial Park, possible regional trailway enhancement and potentially ice arena related improvements). Projects related to these would relate to accessibility, aesthetics and function.
Staff received some feedback from Council on potential projects of interest. Staff is still evaluating a detailed description of the project (or projects) description to present as an option for council to incorporate into the resolution. We are also taking into consideration the State law implications and intent as it relates to defining these projects. A draft resolution is included in the packet but does not include detailed project descripti...
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