An ordinance authorizing an amendment to the code of the city of Mexico was approved Monday night in a regularly-scheduled meeting of the Mexico City Council. The subsection amendment will permit 100 percent real property tax abatement for a term of 20 years on real estate improvements involving Brownfield Redevelopment Program tax credits issued by the state's Department of Natural Resources and the Missouri Department of Economic Develop-ment, and when 50 or more new jobs are created.

Assistant City Manager and Economic Development Director Russell Runge noted city staff is presently working on an economic project utilizing Brownfield Redevelopment tax credits in conjunction with the former A.P. Green Refractories facility, and the amendment will assist the city in providing additional economic incentives.

At its Web site at ded.mo.gov, the state's Department of Economic Development states the purpose of the Brownfield Redevelopment Program is to provide financial incentives for redevelopment of commercial and industrial sites which have been abandoned or under-utilized for at least three years, and are contaminated with hazardous substances.

Meantime, City Attorney Lou Leonatti responded to questions regarding the 50 jobs provision. According to Leonatti, if a qualifying business "creates or retains 50 or more jobs within the calendar year, it shall qualify for 100 percent real property tax abatement for each year in which this job creation and retention requirement is satisfied, for up to 20 years." He added: "But if you dropped to 40 the next year, you would not get the abatement."

Runge added that for qualifying firms, the specific tax abatement applies only on improvements to real estate.

Also Monday, the city council:
• Approved an ordinance establishing the town's upcoming operating and capital budget, which runs from Oct. 1, 2008 through Sept. 30, 2009. According to previously stated projections by City Manager Todd Thompson, total budgeted expenditures for the city are $13,915,502, with revenues forecast at $12,407,737. In his previous comments, Thompson noted that the $1,507,765 difference represents "the amount of unreserved fund balance and project reserves budgeted." Likewise, he indicated that unreserved fund balance has only been budgeted to fund non-recurring items, with one-time capital outlay expenditures totaling $2,366,570. Adequate reserved fund balance is forecast in the operating fund budget following expenditure of unreserved fund balance.

During a public hearing on the issue conducted Sept. 12, the city manager noted certain specific details of the proposed budget. "With respect to strategic goals, in the wastewater area, sewer plant improvements are included," stated Thompson. "And there are two significant ones. The first is to construct a (wastewater treatment plant) course bar screen, and the budget for that project is $396,000." Similarly, he said "it also includes $232,000 for a dredge equalization basin," adding it will help facilitate more effective operation of the facility.

In tandem with the budget, city council approved a resolution establishing salary schedule for fiscal year 2008-2009 for general, public safety and exempt employees. The adopted resolution follows a Sept. 12 presentation by Victoria McGrath of the McGrath Consulting Group, who detailed findings from a recently conducted comprehensive wage and benefit study of city employees.

According to Administrative Services Director Roger Haynes – commenting in lieu of Thompson, who is attending the International City/County Management Associat-ion conference in Richmond, Virginia – "Data was collected from 40 similar municipalities to establish the average market minimum, mid-point and maximum rates for benchmark positions. Using this system, individual step systems were developed for general hourly and public safety hourly employees, and salary ranges were developed for exempt employees. The step schedule and salary ranges are conservatively designed to position the city to attract and retain qualified employees."
To meet that goal, the resolution authorized an average 12 percent pay adjustment across all funds. Thus, Haynes noted that some tenured employees may receive a 3 or 4 percent raise, while other employees – such as starting public safety workers – may receive as much as a 19 percent pay increase.

At the Sept. 12 meeting, Thompson noted that the pay increase is possible sans impact to other services primarily because of three recent fiscal-related developments: satisfaction of the city's retail reimbursement agreement with Wal-Mart (approximately $150,000); change in health insurance providers and adoption of a Qualified High Deductible Health Plan for employees, coupled with the use of a Health Savings Plan, thereby reducing the city's health insurance premiums; and on-going increase in gross receipts tax money received from wireless cell phone providers resulting from a lawsuit settlement with carriers (including an approximate $189,000 increase during fiscal year 2007.)

Haynes added that the revised pay schedule does not include dispatch positions because the Emergency Services Board is currently evaluating results of the recent wage and benefit study for those positions.

• Approved a resolution authorizing the city manager to sign a lease between the city and Jim Atkinson for rental of hangar space at Mexico Memorial Airport-Hagan Brothers Field. The lease is for a term of one year, and is automatically renewable at the end of the first year. Rental cost is $80 per month. It was noted that Atkinson is the first contact on the "space available" rental request list.

• Approved the appointments of Bruce Oliver and Ron Hopkins to the Tax Increment Financing Commis-sion. Each will fill current vacancies on the commission, with the terms slated to expire in October 2009.

All votes Monday were unanimous, by 3-0 vote, with council members Dan Botts and Ron Loesch not in attendance. Mexico City Council meetings are conducted on the second and fourth Monday of each month, held on the third floor of city hall. Meetings begin at 7 p.m. and the public is invited to attend.