Due to the city councils decisions to elect to spend money on projects that are negligible in value to the community, instead of choosing options that are recommended and economical, the city does not have any extra resources. Because of this blatant disrespect of the city tax payers hard earned dollars you have put yourselves in the position once again to look for a hand out and expect the residents to fix your careless choices. Homeowners taxes have gone up 32% in the last four years since Mayor Pownell has taken office. Northfield has a higher sales tax than 91% of Minnesota localities and is an embarrassing 1% lower than the MAXIMUM sales tax in MN. This is not the time to ask your employer for a hand out. It is time to start making responsible decisions with the tax payers money. You put the city in this situation. Please figure out how to fix it without further taxing the citizens. That is what I would expect responsible people do.