TO:                  Mayor William F. Martin, Jr.

                                    And

                        Members of the Lowell City Council

FROM:            Bernard F. Lynch, City Manager

DATE:             September 6, 2007

SUBJECT:        COUNCIL MOTION BY COUNCILOR ELLIOTT OF 8/14/07:  “Request the City Manager report on the pending bill in Legislature re: Taxing Utilities Properties and plan to address school finding gap of $800,000”

In regards to the above-mentioned motion, the proposed legislation to close the loophole that allowed utilities to avoid some property taxation will not pass in time to allow us to include those revenues in the calculation of our fiscal year 2008 tax rates.  In anticipation of this probability, Tom Moses and the finance department worked diligently to mitigate the effect of this probability.  I am very pleased to report that excess funds in our 2007 appropriations have been identified and transferred to cover deficits in the snow and ice accounts.  So successful in fact, that the deficits in this account have been completely eliminated. 

Please contact me with any questions regarding this matter.

Thank you.