Cape may raise fees to increase pay

Cape Girardeau sewer and trash customers would pay slightly higher fees next year to help fund pay raises for city employees under budget revisions the city council will vote on Monday.

But Councilman Jay Purcell objects to raising the sewer and trash fees. He said it wasn't mentioned by city officials in proposing passage of a fire sales tax earlier this year.

City officials said the higher fees only would pay salary costs for the city's 53 employees who handle sewer and trash services. Those pay raises would cost the city about $130,000 in additional expenses, necessitating the fee increases, city finance director John Richbourg said.

Pay raises for police, firefighters and other city workers would be funded by money from the city's new fire sales tax and general fund revenue, officials said.

City officials had promised to work to raise salaries for police officers and firefighters if voters approved the quarter-cent sales tax. The measure was approved by voters in June.

"The biggest currency we have is the trust of the voters," Purcell said. The councilman, who is resigning at the end of the month now that he has been elected as a Cape Girardeau County commissioner, worries that raising the fees will lower public confidence in the city government.

"I have fought tooth and nail every year to keep rates down," he said.

But other council members, including Mayor Jay Knudtson, said there's no other option but to raise the fees. They said the sewer and trash fee increases will add little to the monthly bill for most Cape Girardeau residents and businesses.

Cape Girardeau residents would see their monthly bills for sewer, water and trash service increase by 1.5 percent, Richbourg said. That would amount to a 65-cent increase on the average monthly bill, raising the total to $43.61.

Commercial sewer and water customers would see an average monthly bill of $122.15, an increase of $1.07. The city doesn't provide commercial trash pickup. That's left to private haulers.

The transfer station disposal fee also would increase. City officials want to increase it by $1, or 2.81 percent, to $36.61 per ton.

City manager Doug Leslie said the proposed fee increases likely would take effect in February. The city council will have to pass ordinances in January before any fee increases could be implemented, he said.

Sewer and trash fees would increase, but water fees would remain at the current level, city officials said.

That's because only three employees in the water department are city workers. The bulk of that department's staff work for Alliance Water Resources, which operates water services under a contract with the city.

The water fund has a sufficient balance to cover the $5,791.89 in added costs from pay raises for those three workers, he said.

Richbourg said the city routinely raises water, sewer and trash fees to cover increased operating costs. The city can raise such service fees up to 5 percent annually without voter approval, he said.

"This is nothing out of the ordinary," he said of the proposed fee increases.

Water, sewer and trash services are operated as self-sufficient entities with the fees charged for such services designed to cover 100 percent of the costs.

As a result, the city has no choice but to raise the fees to cover increased salary costs, said Councilman Charlie Herbst.

Richbourg said the city doesn't have enough money in its general fund to subsidize such services.

The new pay plan, proposed to take effect Jan. 1, would provide 13.4 percent pay raises on average for police officers and firefighters and 7.8 percent pay raises on average for all other city employees, officials said.

The salary increases for the city's 370 employees will cost the city an additional $1.3 million. The increased sewer and trash fees would fund only about 10 percent of that cost, officials said.

"The fees are a small part of the budget," Knudtson said.

mbliss@semissourian.com

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