Garrett
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Registered on 04-17-08
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06-03-08 09:38 AM - Post#36
From OC Register
Santa Ana considers raising water rates, many other fees
Faced with a $28 million deficit in its core budget, the city is looking at hundreds of small fee increases to recover more of its costs.
By DOUG IRVING
THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER
Comments 13 | Recommend 3
SANTA ANA – The cost of water, sewer service and even overdue library books will likely be going up as the city grapples with a $28 million disconnect between the money it collects and the money it spends.
The City Council is scheduled to vote today on hundreds of mostly small fee increases as part of a larger discussion about the next city budget. The meeting begins at 6 p.m. in City Hall, 20 Civic Center Plaza.
Residents can expect to pay a little more for city services ranging from swimming lessons to ambulance rides to dunk-tank rentals. The increases, almost all of which amount to a few cents on the dollar, are meant to offset the city's own rising costs to provide those services.
But where most residents will see a change is on their water bill. City officials have proposed a raise in the water rates that would cost the average household about $4 more a month.
The increase would come only nine months after the City Council last voted to raise the water rates. That price hike added about $4.28 to the monthly bill for an average house.
Santa Ana's water rates are already higher – in most cases, much higher -- than any other north-county city with a similar water system, according to a recent survey by the Municipal Water District of Orange County. Residents in Anaheim and Orange, for example, receive bills that are several dollars cheaper every month, the survey found.
City officials have said the higher rates address the rising cost to provide water and maintain underground pipelines. The city cannot charge more than it needs to recover its costs, senior budget analyst Robert Cortez said.
The city is also looking at a sewer-rate increase that would add $1 a month to the typical residential bill. And city officials are considering a long list of mostly routine fee increases for other services the city provides.
A two-week session of child swimming lessons, for example, would cost $32.70 under the proposed rates – an increase of $1.29. Most parking tickets would go up $1, youth sports would cost an additional 56 cents, and the daily fine for overdue library books would jump from 20 cents to 25 cents.
The revised fees are part of the city's proposed budget for the coming fiscal year, which begins on July 1. That budget has a $28 million deficit in the core account that supports such basic city services as police, planning and libraries.
Some of the city's most important sources of money – especially sales tax – have slipped as the economy shifted into neutral. At the same time, the city's spending has continued to go up, thanks in large part to negotiated salary increases and rising costs for energy and supplies, City Manager David Ream wrote in a budget overview.
City officials plan to reach deep into rainy-day reserve funds to help cover this year's deficit. Some city departments – including the one that oversees the library – were also told to cut their spending by 5 percent to help balance the budget.
The city will spend the next year looking for other places to cut and consolidate, Cortez said. It also has begun to study how much money it spends on the services it provides, and could further increase some fees and charges later in the year to recover more of its costs.
The proposed budget for the coming fiscal year spells out more than $244 million in spending on basic city services, such as police and fire protection, libraries and parks. Add in special funds set aside for big-ticket projects, such as road work and housing assistance, and the overall city budget tops $583 million."
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