COUNCIL AGAIN ADOPTS CITY TAX-AND-FEE CAP

The tax-and-fee cap is back on, the sewer fee hike isn't, and the city's golf and recreation programs must get by on scaled-back fee hikes.

The Cape Girardeau City Council made those decisions Monday night. In doing so, the council reversed its earlier stands.

The absence of two councilmen played a role in the defeat of a city staff plan to raise sewer charges.

The council voted 5-0 to trim back golf and recreation fee hikes to bring them within the constraints of a 5 percent tax-and-fee cap approved by the council last July.

Mayor Al Spradling III said he had made a mistake in initially supporting an 8 percent hike. He said the Parks and Recreation Department will have to reduce its budget.

The sewer fee hike was defeated on a 3-2 vote.

Councilmen Jack Rickard, Melvin Gateley and Richard Eggimann voted against it, rejecting the advice of city staff. Spradling and Councilman Tom Neumeyer voted for it.

The budget called for a 5 percent hike in sewer fees, a move that the majority of council members had backed at a June 7 study session.

But only five council members attended Monday's meeting. Councilmen J.J. Williamson and Melvin Kasten were out of town.

As a result, the council had to have four votes to pass anything.

Eggimann wanted to transfer $114,000 out of the general fund's $2.2 million reserve to pay for anticipated increases in sewer operations. But that measure failed when Spradling and Neumeyer dissented. Although the other three council members voted for it, the measure failed because it didn't receive the needed four votes.

Spradling and Neumeyer said the sewer operations are designed to be self-sufficient and it would be wrong to support the program with general-fund revenue.

The city staff had pushed for the fee hike.

Spradling said the fee hike was needed to meet the growing cost of sewer operations, including government mandated requirements concerning the treatment of sludge.

Eggimann said the public was tired of tax and fee hikes. "I believe we have just got to limit spending somehow," he said at Monday night's study session. "It seems like every time we do anything, we shoot ourselves in the foot," he said.

Spradling said it would be wrong to ignore the need for increased sewer charges just to win votes for the transportation tax on the August ballot.

After the meeting, Spradling said the city would have to cut sewer expenses, including perhaps a new personnel position.

Gateley said he believes Monday's action has put an end to talk of a sewer hike this year.