MerryChristmas PRIOR LAKE
SATURDAY, DECEMBER 24, 2011
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AMERICAN City has even more surplus than expected Council votes to decrease tax levy more than anticipated for 2012 BY LORI CARLSON editor@plamerican.com
Some year-end windfalls will keep a bit more money in taxpayers’ bank accounts for 2012. Though forecasts just two weeks ago showed the city would have a budget surplus of about $650,000 this year, new numbers reveal the surplus is actually $700,000, said Finance Director Jerilyn Erickson. On Monday, Prior Lake City Council members agreed to reduce the 2012 property tax levy by $700,000, about $ 250,000 more than it had earlier agreed upon. But changes to the state’s
Market Value Homestead Credit Aid program take the net reduction down to $442,000, or 4.5 percent. The total levy was set at $ 9.41 million. The levy for 2011 was $10.11 million. The reduction will amount to a break of about $40 to $50 on the average homeowner’s city tax bill, Erickson said. The council plans to use $736,000 of fund-balance reserves in 2012 to cover expenses and keep taxes down. Erickson said the additional surplus came when she realized the actual 2011 revenues exceeded what she projected, particularly in building permits, dividends and workers’ com-
ROLLING DOWN THE RIVER
pensation claims. “A r e w e b u d geting too conservatively? ” Mayor Mike Myser asked. “I’ve increased estimates [for revenues] in several areas, but we can’t plan for unknowns,” the finance director responded.
Mike Myser
‘NO’ VOTES Council agreement stopped at the levy reduction, with Myser and Councilman Richard Keeney voting against
Richard Keeney
“I hear [others] on the council saying you don’t want to give the surplus money back too fast, but on the other hand we’re adding staff back quickly,” Myser said. “I think it’s just too aggressive for us to be adding three to the headcount.” Council Members Warren Erickson, Ken Hedberg and Vanessa Soukup said they’re comfortable adding staff for 2012. “In this tough economy, people are losing jobs. We are in a position where we have the work and we need the staff to fi ll these positions,” Soukup said.
Ken Hedberg
the $12.8 million budget for 2012, saying they can’t support a proposed 4.5-percent spending increase that includes hiring three new city employees.
Tax levy to page 3 ®
Council debates comment on latest tribal trust application “The difference between federal recognition County Board opposes SMSC plan of a tribe and federal jurisdiction has been BY LORI CARLSON & SHANNON FIECKE editor@plamerican.com & sfiecke@swpub.com
A 23-acre piece of land where organic vegetables grow is the subject of the latest trust-land application by the Shakopee Mdewakanton Sioux Community. For area government officials, the decision whether or not to comment on the application in front of the Bureau of Indian Affairs is a balancing act. On one hand, some question the tribe’s need for additional trust land, with nearly half of the more than 2,500 acres of tribal land now in federal trust. Others, including some members of the Prior Lake City Council, say there’s no need to disrupt their positive working relationships with the tribe. Also at issue is a Supreme Court decision that limits the federal government’s authority to place land in trust to tribes under federal jurisdiction before a 1934 federal act. That decision could come into play as the Shakopee Mdewakanton Sioux Community seeks to place an additional 156 acres of land into trust. In late October and early Novem-
questioned by the Sioux community; however, the Department of Interior has gone on record that it interprets federal recognition and federal jurisdiction to be one and the same.” Pat Ciliberto Scott County Attorney ber, the tribe applied to place into trust: the 23-acre Wazupi Gardens parcels in Prior Lake; 130 acres of the former Shutrop property along Eagle Creek Boulevard in Shakopee; and the 2.5-acre former Stemmer parcel along Dakota Parkway in Shakopee. Scott County Attorney Pat Ciliberto told the Scott County Board recently that the 2009 court decision – which was decided after the tribe’s last major trust application – means the three most recent land trust applications are “contrary to law.” “We didn’t have this decision in years past when trust applications were before the [county] board; now we basically have a bright-line decision,” Ciliberto said. The Supreme Court decision
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Ciliberto believes should guide the latest application is Carcieri vs. Salazar, which involved lands in Rhode Island. The court held that the federal government’s authority to take land into trust for Native American tribes is limited to tribes recognized and under federal jurisdiction at the time of the Indian Reorganization Act in 1934.
Trust land to page 3 ®
The holidays: What’s closed in Prior Lake Weekend holidays this year will result in school, city and other governmental offices closing on the Fridays and Mondays before and after Christmas and the New Year. PHOTO BY MERYN FLUKER / REPRINTS AT PHOTOS.PLAMERICAN.COM
Seven-year-old Eli Hermann steers the raft he’s sharing with his grandmother, Mary Blank, as the pair traverse the Indiana Jones Obstacle Course at Five Hawks Elementary School. Eli, who lives in Prior Lake, is a first-grader at the school.
CITY OFFICES City of Prior Lake offices will be closed Monday, Dec. 26 in observance of the Christmas Day holiday. City Hall, 4646 Dakota St., will reopen on Tuesday, Dec. 27. City offices also will be closed Friday, Dec. 30 and Monday, Jan. 2 for
LIBRARIES
New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day.
DISTRICT 719 In the Prior Lake-Savage Area School District, buildings will be closed Dec. 26 and 30 and Jan. 2. This includes schools and the District Services Center at 4540 Tower St.
SCOTT COUNTY The Scott County Government Center, 200 Fourth Ave. W., Shakopee, will be closed Dec. 25 and 26 as well as Jan. 1 and 2.
INSIDE OPINION/4 OBITUARIES/6 SPORTS/9-10 AMERICAN SLICE/13 CALENDAR/17 CLASSIFIEDS/19-21 TO REACH US SUBSCRIBE: (952) 345-6682 EDITOR: (952) 345-6378 OR EDITOR@PLAMERICAN.COM
The Prior Lake Library, 16210 Eagle Creek Ave., will be closed along with all other Scott County libraries through Monday, Dec. 26. The library will be open regular hours on Tuesday, Dec. 27. Libraries also will be closed Jan. 1 and 2. The book drop will be open to return materials. Items can be renewed by calling (952) 890-9184 or on the Web at www.scott.lib. mn.us.
VOL. 52 ISSUE 13 © SOUTHWEST NEWSPAPERS
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