PARK BOARD VOICES CONCERN ABOUT 5 PERCENT CAP ON FEES

Just last year Cape Girardeau voters amended the city charter to keep city agencies from raising fees more than 5 percent in any year.

As this year's budget process progresses, members of the Parks and Recreation Advisory Board have found problems with the cap.

At its meeting Monday, board member Mike Kohlfeld said the City Council had indicated it wanted to make as many programs as possible self-supporting from user fees. But the charter is making that task more difficult by limiting the increase in fees to cover costs that used to be covered by city subsidies.

"The city taxpayer is going to pay for it one way or the other," whether through fees or taxes, Kohlfeld said. "I thought our direction was to get it through user payments."

Parks director Dan Muser said that his department raised many but not all parks and recreation fees by close to 5 percent each of the last two years to get closer to self-sufficiency. Some fees have stayed the same.

In the past the parks department held user fees steady for several years and then raised them hefty amounts at one time, Muser said. That is not possible under the current system without holding an election.

For example, the city charges children 13 and younger $1 admission to the swimming pool. That fee has remained the same since the charter change went into effect, and Muser has not asked for a raise in next year's budget. With the charter amendment, the city couldn't raise the fee higher than $1.05 without an election.

Muser said in an interview after the meeting that it is impractical to expect children to bring $1.05 to the pool. It would make more sense to wait several years and raise the fee to, say, $1.25 when costs justify it.

The exchange at the advisory board meeting came as a result of a discussion at last Monday's City Council work session. Councilman Richard Eggiman asked why so many city agencies were asking for fee increases of about 5 percent.

"Since we've got a cap, everybody's going to ask for 5 percent," Eggiman said. He challenged departments to justify their increases, noting that inflation for the last two years has been just less than 3 percent.

The advisory board already had approved a proposed fee schedule with many 5 percent fee increases next fiscal year beginning July 1. After the council meeting, Muser sent the advisory board a letter saying he wanted to lower his fee increase requests to 3 percent rather than 5 percent.

The board complied, but after registering complaints.

"If they're going to hassle us over 2 percent, I suspect politics was involved rather than logic," said board member David Goncher.

Member Terry Ashby agreed. "The form of government worked," he said. "We advised and they decided."

In an interview, Eggiman reiterated his position. "Where do you draw the line?" he said. "Taxes go up. Fees go up.... I'm there to say that the people care when they raise the fees."

Eggiman said people want government reined in, so government bodies must clearly justify any fee increases they ask for. "If they have a real need for the 5 percent, they will have to show me," he said.

Eggiman said he didn't believe the city swimming pool or golf course should be completely self-sufficient, but the city should subsidize them to keep them affordable.

Councilman James Williamson agreed that fees should be held to less than 5 percent without an election. He said that if a department wants to raise a fee higher than the rate of inflation, it needs to make a strong case to the council.

Williamson said he wants programs with fees to be self-supporting, "but you still have to show that that particular program has not been self-supporting" before asking for the increase.

Muser said at the meeting that producing the exact figures for every program is difficult to do, in part because much of the department's salaried staff works on several different programs and he doesn't know how much time they spend on each.

"I could spend more time figuring out how much of their time is in it rather than doing the program," Muser said. He said he believes that no parks and recreation programs are currently self-supporting.

Muser said Parks and Recreation Advisory Board chairman Jay Knudtson might consider appointing a committee next year to study the issue and make recommendations.