Roseville Council Passes Scaled Back Utility Rate, Property Tax Levy Hikes

The Roseville City Council voted Monday evening to raise base fees on water, sewer and storm services by about 30 percent in 2012 and to increase the property tax levy by 1.8 percent.

The council originally planned to increase utility fees by 60 percent in 2012. But  after members , they decided to spread out the utility fee hike between 2012 and 2013.

Chris Miller, the city’s finance director, said the property tax levy increase was scaled back from 4 percent to 1.8 percent based, in part, on the public’s testimony.

“I think the input from the public was influential,” Miller said. “The council thought, ‘Let’s phase this in over two years to make it a little easier on taxpayers.’”

The utility hike is calculated to close a 20-year, $44 million funding gap between current revenues and the costs of utility infrastructure. The council will likely vote to increase utility rates for 2013 in October or November of 2012, Miller said.

For the average single-family Roseville home, the 32 percent rate hike will mean an additional $40 per quarter on utilities in 2012.

“If we do this in a two-step process we’ll have a roughly even impact for 2012 and 2013,” Mayor Dan Roe said.

Miller said the reduced property tax levy increases will prevent the city from expanding any services, such as parks programming, and will limit the city’s ability to perform maintenance.

“The condition you see the parks in today is the condition they’ll be in throughout 2012,” he said.

Included in the property tax levy increase was funding for a 1 percent cost of living adjustment (COLA) for city employees.

Council member Tammy McGehee lobbied for a two percent COLA increase, but was voted down by colleagues concerned about the tax implications.

“I don’t think [city employees have] been very well treated in terms of their contribution being taken away for their health care achievements so I am saddened and disappointed that the council as a whole [does not want to fund a 2 percent COLA adjustment],” McGehee said.