Special Board of Aldermen 6-13-2022 Page 3
imagine, it was a lot lower three years ago than it was last year. So my expectation is that it will increase next year.
Alderman Sullivan
Thank you. In preparation for tonight, and | would appreciate someone explaining to me, | understand the tax cap
was passed in 1993 and it went away for a little while and now it’s back. | would love an understanding of that
timeline but before | do that, | was looking at some budgets from prior years specifically Fiscal Year 17,18 and ‘19
where the layout for the spending cap when the spending cap was in effective for those three Fiscal Years, it wasn’t
laid out the way that the Fiscal Year ’23 is laid out. By that, | mean in the upper section you had your general fund
and then it was broken out by Enterprise Fund, Solid Waste, Waste Water, and then City Special Revenue Funds,
School Special Revenue Funds, and then below it you backed out the Enterprise Fund for both Solid Waste and
Waste Water. Then you backed out City Special Revenue Funds and School Special Revenue Funds. | don’t see
that in Fiscal Year ’23. I’m curious why we didn’t do that because that took the total appropriations from Fiscal Year
2017 from $289 million, less $29 million, with a total appropriation of $260,526,617 and that is where they applied the
cap on top of that. So I’m just curious why we didn’t do that for Fiscal Year ’23?
John Griffin, CFO/Treasurer/Tax Collector
Madam President and other members. | think Corporation Counsel who was with us in his position in ‘17 and so on,
he is our expert on the cap. | can say that when | came in 2010, | inherited a very complicated, in my opinion, not
simple cap structure which you just referenced where things were taken out of the calculation through ordinance.
Alderman Sullivan
Could you understand why | would be confused where in three consecutive years we took it out and the cap went
away, and now the cap is back, and now we're not taking them out?
John Griffin, CFO/Treasurer/Tax Collector
The only thing | can say to that, if | may and | was actually relieved, that the cap didn’t have - | was under the
impression and Corporation Counsel could further the details — but | was under the impression that we were finally
going to be able to go to gross budgeting and include everything with nothing subtracted. That’s my professional
opinion but there’s a better answer with regard to the process from creation, to ordinance changes that changed the
calculation many, many years before | was here, and then finally the decision that the current spending cap that we
had at the time was unenforceable. So we went back to just budgeting without a page that talked about the spending
cap. This is a reintroduction with what’s called “gross budgeting”. Putting in all the appropriations so people have an
understanding of what you folks are appropriating and not carving out things.
Alderman Sullivan
So we just changed it. We just changed the way that we’re going to factor it in. We went from this system to gross
budgeting which you mentioned and that’s how we're factoring it? I’m trying to connect the dots.
John Griffin, CFO/Treasurer/Tax Collector
| understand. Let me see if | can give it a shot. The prior spending cap, the one that | came in with, had items that
were subtracted by ordinance from the calculation. | don’t see anything to subtract going forward because I’m relying
on a spending cap in place with all appropriations appropriate and there’s no need to subtract anything. | don’t know if
that’s a better answer for you Alderman Sullivan but there’s no need of subtracting anything because everything is
included.
Alderman Sullivan
I’m just not understanding. You are saying “by Ordinance”. The Ordinance is what made us subtract these specific
funds in those three years that | mentioned and now those Ordinances...
John Griffin, CFO/Treasurer/Tax Collector
If | may Madam President and members. We didn’t even include the bonds back then. So there’s no need to
subtract. Some of the confusing part of the former spending cap was what to do with the Wastewater Treatment Plant
and the costs associated with it. The Special Revenues are added, subtracted, because they don’t have an impact on
