Council to vote, discuss utility rates

Taxes, changing utility rates and the 2013-14 operating budget will be discussed by the Cape Girardeau City Council at its regular meeting today.

Many of the issues first were discussed at the council's annual retreat in April and now are being addressed in regular session meetings before any ordinances are passed.

Council members will take a first look at lowering sewer rates, a move many citizens have advocated since the city began receiving funds from Isle Casino Cape Girardeau.

City manager Scott Meyer said the council will be voting to approve a rate decrease of $1 per customer per month, but the action is not related to casino revenue.

"Really, the reduction is a result of city staff working hard to find efficiencies and pushing contractors to be efficient and stay within budget," he said.

Cape Girardeau voters in 2011 approved two propositions that extended a quarter-cent capital improvement sales tax and authorized bonds to build and operate a new wastewater treatment plant and sewer line. The same year, the flat fee charged to sewer customers increased to $13.19 from $4.50 per month.

Now that foundational work has been completed and the city has been able to further assess operational costs of the new system, councilman Mark Lanzotti said the staff was able to find savings for customers.

" ... [W]e compared our situation to those of other cities and actually we're paying less than comparable cities," Lanzotti said.

The council also will take its first look at raising residential waste collection fees. If an ordinance is passed, the new monthly fee would be $18.35, an 85-cent increase.

Meyer said the city has made efforts to make the system more efficient, including switching to an automated leaf collection system in 2012, but it was not enough to compensate for rising maintenance costs.

"We have a pretty good system in place," he said. "The automated leaf pickup actually saved us some money; we just experienced some rising costs throughout the year."

The first vote to adopt an operating budget for the city for the new fiscal year, beginning July 1, also will take place tonight.

According to Lanzotti, the eight months of revenue the city has received from the casino does not have a direct effect on the approved budget but could "alleviate some pressure" on capital improvement spending.

"We're trying to be conservative when it comes to that spending," he said. "But we have allocated funds to certain improvements and projects, including payment for the business park at the LaSalle interchange ... which could have an indirect impact on our budget in the future."

The budget also has allotted funds to give city employees a 3 percent raise and set aside $40,000 as part of a contract with Old Town Cape to continue services and efforts to revitalize the downtown area.

Although the council will not be voting on them, it will discuss the possibility of reducing the restaurant tax, set to expire in 2014, and making the hotel/motel tax, which funds the Cape Girardeau Convention and Visitors Bureau, permanent. Lanzotti said the decision ultimately depends on the voters.

"The real question here is what does the community want us to do?" he said. "Do they want to let it lapse or should we identify some sort of project that would be funded by the taxes?"

Lanzotti said he could be an advocate of extending the hotel/motel tax if the "right project" were to be identified.

srinehart@semissourian.com

388-3641

Pertinent address:

401 Independence St., Cape Girardeau, Mo.