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I I I Council Minutes April 9, 1985 Council Business, continued Blomquist asked that Council receive a copy of the completed survey and would also like to see someone from the City attend. Janecek stated the council would want to look at the zoning code to see what is permitted under the definition of family and other things. Motion by Harcus, seconded by Blomquist, to REFER THE COr1MUNITY SERVICES FOR ADULTS AND CHILDREN MATTER TO STAFF WITH THEIR INPUT AT THE APRIL 23, 1985 COUNCIL MEETING. 4 Ayes - 0 Nayes, Motion Carried Announcement & Updates Benke reported on the National League of Cities' conference in Washington D.C., held March 23-26, 1985. He stated that the White House has come to some agreement to their approach to the budget deficit and how they were going to handle it. Those announcements that have been carried in the news media basically stated that there would be an elimination in revenue sharing, elimination of operating assistance to transit systems throughout the country, essential1v eliminates the Urban Action Grant which many cities use for develop- ment, eliminates many other programs that many cities throughout the country (not necessarily New Brighton) use to take care of blight and other problems. These announcements are the same ones Benke would have given two weeks ago after attending the National League of Cities' conference. This was the message he received dispite the protestation and the pointing out of the pitfalls and problems if they proceeded with that course of action. The National League adopted a policy proposal in terms of addressing the budget deficit and recommended across-the-board freezes at all non-needs tested programs by increasing revenues for new programs. In other words, if a new program came in they also had to have the revenue for it. They also addressed the problem and recommendation that the tax expenditure side of the budget be reviewed and frozen in-place. It was pointed out that not only do you have to look at the dollars the government pays out, but you also have to look at the dollars the government decides not to collect. For example, you deduct the interest on your home mortgage and businesses deduct depreciation allowances and there are millions and billions of dollars of those types of tax expenditures. It was recommended that those items be considered in their disucssions. At this point they have not apparently done that. Unless the House of Representatives can pull a miracle out of a hat, ,my recommendation is we assume for next year we will not receive the allocation of revenue sharing funds that we have received these three years. I recall it is about ~90,OOO. Page Six National League of Cities' Conf.