Title
RESOLUTION APPROVING A HALF PERCENT SALES AND USE TAX DEDICATED TO FUND A STREET IMPROVEMENT PROGRAM AND CALLING FOR A REFERENDUM REQUESTING AUTHORIZATION FOR SUCH TAX.
Body
CITY PROPOSAL:
RESOLVED, that the city council of the city of Duluth hereby makes the following findings:
(a) The city's transportation infrastructure is vital to the current and future economic vitality of the city as well as critical to health, welfare and wellbeing of all of its citizens, its neighbors and its visitors; and
(b) Duluth is home to 86,293 residents and serves as a critical regional center with more than 35,000 daily work commuters and 6.7 million annual tourists; and
(c) The need for maintenance, improvement and replacement of the city's road infrastructure results from its use by not only property owners within the city but also from its use by persons and entities from outside the taxing jurisdiction of the city; and
(d) There are approximately 450 miles of city-owned roadways and more than 400 miles of city sidewalks in the city of Duluth requiring maintenance, improvement, and replacement but current funding through property taxes allows us to fund only a few miles per year; and
(e) The city public works and utilities department has developed a long-term program for a capital improvement project implementing said program, which program, entitled "Duluth Street Improvement Program 2017", is attached hereto as Exhibit A (the "Street Improvement Program"), and determined the minimum revenues necessary to address the city's most pressing transportation needs over the next 25 years under the Program; and
(f) The city acting through its mayor designated the Street Improvement Program on August 8, 2017, as required by Minnesota Statutes Section 297A.99, Subd. 3(b); and
(g) Because the need to implement and therefore to fund the Street Improvement Program results from use by persons and entities from without as well as within the city, the most fair, reasonable...
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