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City Council Special Meeting <br />September 3, 2019 <br />Page 2 <br />legal justification. Mayor Clifford asked City Attorney Stephanie Harris if that was something <br />the City could do and she told him the City could look into it but the City could not set property <br />values. <br />Steve Clifford, 2050 Silverleaf Drive, he said this was the fifth year he had been on City <br />Council and he did not plan to support a tax increase. He said for four years straight they had <br />left the tax rate the same, which essentially increased taxes for the citizens of Paris. Mayor <br />Clifford said this year many people were going to get hit with increased tax bills, and he was not <br />going to support a tax increase for the citizens of Paris. Mayor Clifford said when property <br />values increased taxes increased, and they could not continue raising taxes. He said he was not <br />going to support a budget that increased taxes for a fifth year in a row. <br />James O'Bryan, 3150 Bonham Street, 3150 Bonham Street, he said agreed with the <br />Mayor. He said there were not a lot of details in the line items. He said the tax rate should not <br />be increased unless it could be justified for what the citizens were getting. He also said the City <br />should look at expenses, such as the amount of postage spent and going to paperless documents. <br />Mayor Clifford explained if the tax rate was to remain the same and because of increased <br />property values, they would actually need to decrease the tax rate in order to remain revenue <br />neutral regarding the existing properties. He said they would still be allowed to increase the <br />revenue with new properties coming into town. Mayor Clifford also said they would have to <br />decrease the tax rate monetarily to remain revenue neutral. <br />With no one else speaking, Mayor Clifford closed the public hearing. <br />4. Conduct a public hearing on the City Manager's proposed budget for fiscal year 2019- <br />2020. <br />Mayor Clifford opened the public hearing and asked for anyone wishing to speak about <br />this item, to please come forward. <br />Council Member Pilgrim said he had tagged several items that he wanted to review, one <br />budgeted salaries that appeared to be more than the actual salaries, such as in the streets and <br />highways budget. Mr. Anderson said they were not able to fill some of those budgeted positions <br />and used contract labor. Council Member Pilgrim also referenced several other increases in <br />salaries and inquired if there were buffers in the line items. Council Member Pilgrim said on <br />page 20 in community development there was a big increase. Council Member Pilgrim said he <br />thought they could get the budget down. Council Member Knox said one of the budget <br />documents they received reflected the number of employees that were budgeted and it would be <br />good to know how many of those positions were filled with contract labor. Mayor Clifford said if <br />Mr. Anderson could cut the budget by $560,000, they would not have to raise the tax rate. <br />Council Member Pilgrim inquired the difference in the tax rate if they shave the budget by <br />$560,000. Mr. Anderson said instead of 55.195 cents per $100 valuation, that they would have <br />the effective tax rate of 51.608. Council Member Knox inquired if there were any specific <br />