Council considers mill levy increase

The Hillsboro City Coun­cil will be presenting a 2017 budget proposal at an Aug. 16 public hearing that would increase the local property-tax levy by more than 5 mills.

The public hearing will convene at 4 p.m. in the city building.

The council agreed after an initial budget review during its July 19 meeting that a mill levy increase would be necessary to ensure that sufficient funds will be available for utility maintenance needs.

The mill levy for the current budget is 40.216; the proposed mill levy for 2017 is 45.356.

Over the past 15 years or so, the city of Hillsboro has been able to keep its tax levy around 40 mills by transfering utility revenues to the general fund for city operations and projects.

City Administrator Larry Paine said it was time to shift more of the funding burden to the mill levy.

“I can do (transfers again), but it takes away from what we need to do,” Paine said, citing water-line replacement and street projects on the city’s to-do list.

Paine acknowledged that a second reason for the shift is legislation passed this year in Topeka that would require city and county governments to fund a public election for any proposed mill-levy increase that would surpass the consumer price index.

The new law will apply to the 2018 budget.

Considering the expense to hold a local election, Paine said he felt now was the time to raise the mill levy to a more realistic level.

“We can work this to the point that over the next couple of years, if you’d like, we can wean ourselves out of that,” Paine said of the city’s current practice. “But it’s going to take a little bit at a time.”

Councilor Bob Watson described the city’s past strategy as a “rob Peter to pay Paul” approach.

“In my mind we probably should have gone up a couple of mills in the last two or three years, gradually,” Watson said.

While preparing for the 2017 budget review, Paine had initially suggested a levy increase of 12 mills before settling on a lower number with input from council members. He added that changes to the budget can still be made after the budget hearing.

Land swap

The council approved Ordinance 1271, which will vacate the city’s claim to the County Clerk’s Fourth Hillsboro plat.

Passing the ordinance is the first step for the city to “swap” land with local resident Russell Groves in an effort to correct a right-of-way situation on North Adams Street.

Paine said when the city redid the street a couple of years ago, engineers discovered that between Third Street and the water plant, the actual paved surface and right of way of the road was on both public right of way and private property.

The private tract of land is owned by Groves, who is planning to develop a 16-lot residential subdivision along the north side of Third Street. Groves and the city have been working together to resolve the right of way issue, Paine said.

With the approval of Ordinance 1271, the council can move to the next step, which will be to swap three small tracts: two tracts owned by city for one tract owned by Groves, who was present at the meeting.

Once completed, Groves’ development plan will be reviewed by the city’s planning and zoning committee.

Itinerant sales policy

A recent request by an Emporia man to rent space from the city to set up a tent to sell flags, knives, license plates and other yard-sale merchandise has prompted the city to review its policies regarding itinerant sales.

“To me, this is clearly a request for an itinerant seller’s license,” Paine said. “Chapter 5 of our code should be the place where the guidance occurs.”

But a review of the current code revealed several inadequacies.

“One of the things we found reading Chapter 5 was the requirement for all businesses in Hillsboro to have a business licenses—a practice we do not enforce,” Paine said. “As we reviewed the code book, it became clear…that a complete review of the chapter was in order.”

With assistance from City Attorney Josh Boehm, the city will be developing an application form for future requests that reflects the language during a search of ordinances in other cities.

“This appears to be a decision that can be handled administratively and not subject (to the council) for that level of decision-making,” Paine said.

The council voted 4-0 to rework the existing code and bring it back to the council for review.

Other business

In other business, the council:

• meeting as the Public Building Commission, approved a partial payment of $22,440.75 to Associated Insulation Inc. for work completed to remove asbestos from the building housing Hillsboro Community Hospital and Salem Home.

Paine said the project is about 95 percent complete, with the removal of an old boiler left to accomplish.

Paine said the city’s contract with Associated Insula­tion includes the hiring of a third-party company to verify the removal of the asbestos.

• heard Paine report that he and representatives from the local museum board traveled to El Dorado to hear about potential grant opportunities to address maintenance projects at the Adobe House and Schaeffler House museums.

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