Council will discuss change to tax levy change
Published 8:23 am Sunday, March 17, 2013
The Austin City Council will address some big issues at its next meeting.
Council members will discuss whether to switch to a tax levy to pay for street infrastructure projects, as well as the fire department’s potential staff schedule switch and the council’s informal public meetings, at its work session Monday night.
Council Member Jeremy Carolan brought up the suggestion of switching to a property tax levy-based payment system for infrastructure projects during the council’s annual retreat last month. The idea is to lessen the thousands of dollars residents have to pay whenever a street project is done by their home, though there are several obstacles to such a switch.
While Austinites may not have to pay thousands of dollars in assessment fees in a tax levy scenario, homeowners, landowners and businesses could face an immediate, drastic increase in the city’s portion of their property taxes.
City officials have come up with two tax levy scenarios for the council to consider: Fund the entire difference for street projects every year, or wean off assessments over a 10 year period.
Either way, the city’s tax levy would increase by at least 38 percent to fund 2014 projects, with the tax levy slightly varying annually if the council switched all at once, or going down at first under the gradual switch but eventually coming back to that level. In both scenarios, the substantial levy increase would remain moving forward, and the city’s tax levy could increase if the city needed to fund major infrastructure projects, make up for lost Local Government Aid, or fund further operations.
The city has outlined benefits and drawbacks to the switch. Under a tax levy system, the city could potentially reduce staff costs in preparing assessments each year, as well as decrease legal costs defending street assessments in court. Once the levy is increased, future increases would be limited as long as project costs stayed at relatively the same levels.
Yet the city could risk angering residents and businesses already paying assessments, and some neighborhoods may try to pressure city staff to deal with specific streets first if everyone pays the same amount for street projects. Finance Director Tom Dankert outlined an option for the council to potentially pay back a portion of assessments to residents based on how long they’ve paid, but the repayment would cost the city millions in the short term. In addition, there’s no telling if the state will continue to fund LGA at its current levels, which means the city may have to switch back to an assessment system.
A potential schedule switch
The council may approve the Austin Fire Department’s scheduling from an alternating night- and day-shift schedule to a 24 hours on/48 hours off schedule, though they split 4-3 on a vote to bring the matter to Monday’s public meeting. Council members Steve King, Jeremy Carolan (a part-time firefighter), Janet Anderson and Judy Enright approved voting on the issue at a public meeting while Roger Boughton, Jeff Austin, and Michael Jordahl wanted to have more time to consider the issue.
Under the current schedule, full-time firefighters operate on a nine-day schedule. They are required to report in for 10 hours, or from 7 a.m. to 5 p.m., for three days, followed by three days of 14-hour shifts from 5 p.m. to 7 a.m., and then three days off. Part-time firefighters work under a similar nine-day schedule, as they’re split into three tiers and called in based on which shift their group is assigned.
Healey and other firefighters have recently told city officials and council members a recent increase of injuries and vacation time requested will leave the department undermanned toward the end of this month, with only one full-time firefighter at the city firehouse for several days unless some employees were paid to work overtime.
Healey came before the council during its work session two weeks ago to ask for the department to switch to a 24/48 schedule, where full-time employees work 24 hours straight starting at 7 a.m., then have two days off, while part-time employees will be the first to get called on their scheduled day, then fall into second- and third-group rankings for the next two days. Healey told the council he was “adamantly against” the 10/14 scheduling, calling it a nightmare.
Yet city administration are against the council acting too swiftly on the issue. City Administrator Jim Hurm said he would recommend the council “leave the shifts alone and consider some of the other possible solutions to a temporary problem,” in a memo to the council.
The council will also come up with rules for its “Coffee with the Council” meetings, as well as discuss recent litigation during a closed session. The city recently lost an assessment appeal from three property owners of former Lansing Township land, and must reassess those properties. In addition, the owners of about 27 property lots in that same area will appeal their assessments at an upcoming trial.