Candidate Viewpoint: Cottage Grove City Council candidate Matthew Kowalski
September 29, 2012 at 3:24 am in South Washington County Bulletin
This Nov. 6 I am asking that you choose me to bring a fresh perspective to the Cottage Grove City Council. Continue Reading
Seems to be a lack of understanding in this piece. CG collected more tax revenue because there were significantly fewer homes that were vacant due to foreclosure and now those properties are paying taxes on the property versus being non-taxed bank owned properties. Also, we have a builder that has been putting up a number of homes and paying taxes on those homes. That development has introduced well over 50 new homes into CG this year, which will increase the tax revenue collection. Second, there were more businesses introduced to CG this year, which means empty store lots are now producing tax revenue as well. And, the storefront vacancy rate (excluding home depot, which should close in the next couple of weeks) is near 5 percent, which is significantly below the average of many cities our size.
With the new PS building, the city didn’t dip into its savings account. It had a fund with cash available for this project. The city has been planning this for years. It also sold bonds to pay for the project, while paying off other debt early to make sure there the net effect on tax payers would be neutral.
Kudos to this person for running though, it takes some courage to put yourself out on the line like this.
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I’d appreciate Mr. Kowalski giving voters more insight into what he proposes to do. And what has he done for the city so far? Any volunteering? Didn’t he say that he chose Cottage Grove because the taxes were lower than Roseville?
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