With sales-tax revenue flat, Jackson to look at fee increases for city services

Faced with rising operating costs and relatively stagnant revenue, Jackson city leaders are looking for ways to increase revenue through fee increases for various city services.

Revenue enhancement was one of the main discussion topics during the Jackson Board of Aldermen’s annual work session and retreat with the heads of various city departments Tuesday at the Jackson Civic Center.

“If you look at our general sales-tax receipts, which fund a lot of things within the city, we are flat,” Jackson Mayor Dwain Hahs told members of the board and other city officials.

Through the first nine months of 2019, the mayor said city sales-tax revenue is down approximately 1% to 1.5% compared to last year.

“We’re projecting it will go back up and we certainly hope it does, but effectively, it’s flat,” he said.

Meanwhile, Hahs said the city’s operating expenses are outpacing revenue because of increased costs for everything from equipment and supplies to utilities and employee salaries. Earlier this week, the Jackson Board of Aldermen received a recommendation from a salary and wage consultant who suggested the city may need to increase salaries for city workers an average of 10% in order to compete with other cities and employers in the private sector.

“That’s our challenge,” the mayor said. “We need to see if there are opportunities for our fees to reflect services provided by the city.”

Caleb Fjone, a student at Southeast Missouri State University who is working toward a graduate degree in public administration, spent several months over the summer as an intern in Jackson City Hall. During that time, he looked for untapped revenue sources as well as city services for which Jackson’s fees are significantly lower than fees charged by other municipalities for similar services.

For instance, Fjone said Jackson’s fees for business licenses are lower than those charged by Cape Girardeau and Sikeston, Missouri. He also noted Jackson’s fees are either nominal or nonexistant for things such as special-event permits, parks and recreation fees and rental property utility deposits.

At $6 a month, Jackson has one of the lowest fees for residential trash collection in the region, but the solid waste disposal program costs more than $580,000 a year to operate, substantially more than the city collects in trash fees. The program operates with a deficit of nearly $150,000 a year and is subsidized by sales-tax revenue. If the monthly charge is increased to $8, the system would break even and at the $10-a-month level, city officials said it might be possible to purchase additional refuse collection equipment.

At $10 a month, “we would still be about 40 to 50% below most other cities and private contractors,” Hahs said.

The mayor asked the aldermen and department heads to take the fee adjustment proposals under advisement and said fee increases will be discussed at upcoming board study sessions.

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