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CITY OF
CHANHASSEN
690 City Cen"r Drive, PO Box 147
Challh,lISen, Minllesota 55317
Pholle 612.937.1900
Geneml Fax 612.937.5739
Ellgilleerillg Fax 612.937.9152
Publi, Safety Fax 612.934.2524
\rÍ>b 1l'll'u',á.chau!Jil5sen.mll,lIs
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MEMORANDUM
TO:
Mayor and City Council
FROM:
Don Ashworth, City Manager
DATE:
July 7,1998
SUBJ:
Fiscal Impacts of New Development
This memorandum has four components: 1) Overview; 2) Existing tax
calculations; 3) Fiscal impacts of new development; and 4) Recommendation.
1) OVERVIEW
I have seen fiscal impact studies, but the computer generated results are only as
good as the numbers entered by the consultant/engineer and herlhis assumptions.
For example, let's say sewer and water through a major area of the city costs
$IOM. Your attorney says he cannot defend special assessments to that level as
the 30-inch pipes are larger than anyone subdivision needs. A typical study
would then label the 30% - 40% oversizing costs as "general obligation" and,
therefore, be bad for an existing resident. This could be true, but it could also be
false. Is the bird in my hand dead or alive?
The Upper Bluff Creek sewer and water project is exactly the hypothetical
described above, i.e. total cost, size of pipes, sustainable assessments, etc. Was I,
as a taxpayer, burdened with this $3-4M deficit? No! Connection charges were
set to pay system charges on a community wide basis. Will the $3-4M be paid?
Yes! Was the water tower on Murray Hill repainted (major expense removing old
lead base paint) via the same fees? Yes! Would I have had to pay for this had
new development not occurred? Yes! [Note: Murray Hill was developed long
before "connection charges" were established, and, therefore, they had no monies
to pay this cost if new development had not occurred.]
All of the points made above are true in regards to other improvements; i.e.
streets, parks, etc. For example, our attorneys/appraisers advised the city that we
could not sustain assessments of more than 40% of the anticipated costs of
building Kerber Boulevard. We built the road and assessed 40% of its costs to the
abutting properties. Did "general obligation" pick up the remaining 60%? No!
The City ofCbauhassm. A growing community with clean lakes, quality scbools, a channing downtown, thriving businesses. and beauliful parks. A greal place 10 Ii,,,, work, and play
·1
Mayor and City Council
July 7, 1998
Page 2
As the project was partially within a TIF district, that district paid 40% of the total project costs. We
additionally applied for and received state aid designation and the state paid 70% of the total project cost.
Was collecting 50% more than a project cost the city legal? Yes. Is this scenario typical? No, but it was
true of at least four projects that I am aware of and the 1997 audit report shows a healthy balance in the
fund labeled "municipal state aid" even after it funded many years of "water quality projects" and
suffered major damages during the "investment debacle." (Note: You need a few good projects to help
those that stumble.] Another example could be the Steiner Development (41 & 5), CSM (Dell & 5), or
Villages on the Pond (Market & 5). In each of these projects, we did or will assess ±90% of the project
costs to the developer. The remaining 10% will come trom tax increment. Could we have charged 100%
of the costs to tax increment and simultaneously assessed 90%? Yes. Would this be legal? Yes. Would
we have paid the entire cost of the park referendum by doing such? Yes. City councils need to make
decisions each day as to what is fair and right. I think the decisions we have made are fair and justified,
but my point is there are a number of ways to ensure that new development does not occur at the expense
of existing homeowners.
The above overview was presented to reflect my dismay with a fiscal analysis that concentrates primarily
on capital costs of new development. The comprehensive planning process should not be driven by fiscal
considerations - those are within your hand to live or die. Our overriding principle should solely be-
What do we want this community to be?
Before presenting my "Fiscal Impacts of New Development," a review of existing property values and
tax calculations is in order. Following the statistics are various "Hypotheticals" which can be fallacies to
any "Fiscal Impact Analysis or Formula," including my own.
2) EXISTING TAX CALCULATIONS (All Operating and Debt Expenditures)
Residential
Value
0-$150,000
150,000-250,000
250,000+
No. of
Homes
2,500
2,000
900
5,400
Average
Value
(I,OOO's)
130
200
300
Average Tax
Capacity
1,600
3,000
5,300
Total Tax
Capacity
3.8M
5.7M
4.5M
14.0M
Other Tax Class
Residential-Other
Rural (Ag)
C & I (Hennepin)
C & I (Carver)
l.OM
.2M
I.3M
.5M
17.0M
1998 City Tax Levy - 4.67M
City Tax Rate (4.67 + 17.0) = 27.404%
Total Tax Rate (city, county, school, misc.) = 150%. Accordingly the city's 27.4% =
18% of your tax bill)
Cost per household (4.67 + 5400) = $865
Cost per household factoring out services to "Other tax class" = $710
Mayor and City Council
July 7,1998
Page 3
The City Council asked that tax increment revenues be included in this report. These revenues
are as follows:
District
Tax Increment
Collections
TIF District #24, Arbor Business Park
TIF District #25, Downtown
TIF District #26, McGlynn
TIF District #27, National Weather Service
TIF District #28, Entertainment
TIF District #29, North Bay
Hennepin County District #3-1
Total
5,116
5,394,954
711,702
378,272
86,756
5,470
580,000
$6,931,176
Before I present my Fiscal Impact Model, various hypotheticals need to be presented. They are:
Hypothetical Scenario #1
Assume that the growth that has occurred over the past 10-15 years had not occurred, but that our
5,400 total residential units still exist. We now become a Columbia Heights. With 5,400 units
valued at less than $150,000 and a tax levy of$4.7M, our tax rate would be 50% or a whopping
85% increase. However, based on state aid formulas (under which we currently get $0), our
hypothetical town would get $2.5M in state aids which would produce a net tax rate of 25%.
What's the bottom line? The state has massaged state aids, homestead credit, fiscal disparity
contributions/distributions, etc. to virtually guarantee (rich or poor) that any city's tax levy will
be within 10% of our previous 25% level. [Note: Within two years, the formula will probably
kick in to reduce our current levy of 27% (created by the park referendum) back to the average
25% level.]
Hypothetical Scenario #2
Let's assume we all have newer houses and are all paying taxes at the higher rate for new homes
($150,000-$250,000). In that case, our tax rate would reduce to 20% or a 40% decrease.
Another way of making this same point is that a new homeowner is now paying $5,000/year in
property taxes to subsidize my taxes of$3,000/year. Any "formula" developed should recognize
that the 4,090 units (vacant in 1991 MUSA) proposed to be built through a plan amendment will
be burdened with a significantly higher percent of the tax bill than a home built today (then being
20 years old) or mine (then being 50 years old).
Hypothetical Scenario #3
The proposed comprehensive plan maintains approximately the same number of
commercial/industrial properties to residential as currently exists. As commercial/industrial
;'1
Mayor and City Council
July 7, 1998
Page 4
property pays approximately 2-3 times more than residential property, a reduction in
commercial/industrial acreage would be reasonably easy to calculate in terms of net tax
difference. I will return to the start of this memorandum in terms of why we attempt to plan, i.e.
to develop a community that is a community. If your definition of a well planned community is a
"no tax community," then bring in three Koch Refineries and we can put this exercise to bed.
3) FISCAL IMPACTS OF NEW DEVELOPMENT
[Note: The first line under the headings 2000, 2010 and 2020 uses constant dollars for our
current cost per household ($710), times the number of additional units to derive a tax rate. That
line treats the 1100 additional homes in 2000 or 3000 additional homes in 2010 as isolated
communities in which only they existed. The "Blended Rate" line folds their values/taxes back
into the community as a whole, i.e. the tax impact for a new home in 2020 assumes that 1100
additional homes were built between now and the end of2000 and that 3000 additional homes
were built between 2000 and 2010.]
No. of Add'l Average Average Tax Total Tax Costs of City Tax Capacity Rate
Homes Value Capacity Capacity Services
($I,OOO's) ($710/home)
Year 2000
1100 $275 $4,700 5.2M .78lM 18%
Current Rate 27.4%
Blended Rate 25.3%
-2.1%(-8%)
Year 2010
3000 $300 $5,300 l6.0M 2.13M 16.2%
Blended Rate 21.7%
-5.7% (-21%)
13.0%
Year 2020 $325 $5,700 22.8M 2.8M 17.4%
4000 -10.0% (-36%)
Tax Increment - The above analysis considers tax increment as tax neutral. Why? The fo1\owing
analogy is not tota1\y correct, but the bottom line is. Think of a tax increment district as a typical
subdivision. As the streets are built in that subdivision and normal services extended (plowing,
fire, police, etc.), the city receives the same 18% of the tax do1\ar trom that parcel as we receive
trom you or 1. Tax increment districts are no different. Instant Web, Rosemount, etc. are paying
18% of their tax do1\ar towards operating the city. The difference is that the remaining 82% of
CSM or the DataServ's taxes can be used at the discretion of the council, i.e. tax incentives to
businesses, paying oversizing costs (discussed earlier), building a water tower benefiting far
more than that subdivision (TI District), etc. In the above example, the losers of the 82% of the
Mayor and City Council
July 7,1998
Page 5
tax dollar are Hennepin County and the State of Minnesota (technically the Eden Prairie school
district), [but whatever tax they would have received from CSM will be reduced from their state
aids. Therefore, they do not care if we create a district or not.] Ifthe council has discretion in
setting the amount of tax increment to be used to offset operating costs, why not set it at 36% and
therefore reduce everybody's taxes? The answer is simple. You have just lit the fuse of a major
time bomb; i.e. our largest district has operating expenditures of$7l8, 918. These expenses
include street lighting, signals, maintenance, police, fire, etc. Assuming the district ceased today,
our normal 18% of the tax dollar from these same parcels would produce $702,000 in tax dollars
or a loss of approximately -$16,918. If the city would have set operating expenditures for this
district at 1.5M, in 2003 we would be faced with firing every other employee associated with this
district, answering lout of 2 fire/police calls, etc. The minor difference between operating
revenues and expenditures for this district will be corrected before 2004, but the bottom line is
that this district, and all others, are "tax impact neutraL"
4) RECOMMENDATION
We should move ahead with the comprehensive planning process. As parcels come before us
where the use is proposed to be changed to something having a detrimental tax impact, we
should do what we did with the Town and Country Homes property - challenge the applicant to
show where other parcels can make-up for the loss. This planning strategy has worked in the
past and it will work in the future.
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