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Buena Vista City Council, meeting as the city’s Public Service Authority this past Thursday, raised the city’s sewer rate by 50 cents per 1,000 gallons, from $8.54 to $9.04. The water rate was left at $8.58 per 1,000 gallons.
Charles Clements, the city’s finance director, explained that the sewer rate increase would allow the city to address issues at the wastewater treatment plant as well as allow the city to qualify for funding assistance from the U.S. Department of Agriculture to pay for a major upgrade to the plant.
“I hate to raise anything but because the USDA is requiring it, I’ll make a motion [to raise the sewer rate by 50 cents],” said Melvin Henson. Ron Cash second the motion, which passed unanimously. - Following the meeting of the PSA, City Council convened and held a public hearing on the city budget for the upcoming fiscal year. The only two citizens who spoke raised concerns about looming reassessments that are expected to raise property values by 40 percent.
Nancy Sika said she was pleased that the budget provides full funding for the library so it will be able to reopen on Fridays and that there is sufficient funding for the schools to give teachers pay raises. However, she said she was “disturbed” that the real estate tax rate was being left at $1.27 per $100 value when reassessments are pushing property values up 40 percent.
Ada Branham echoed this last point, saying that such a huge tax increase would put a “burden” on citizens.
Mayor Tyson Cooper addressed the issue of the pending reassessments. Once those increased values are known, he said, Council’s intention is to equalize the tax rate – to lower it so that it doesn’t generate more revenue than the current rate would on the old property values. If the rate isn’t equalized, he noted, state law would require the city to advertise a rate increase. That, he added, Council does not intend to do.
The proposed budget, which is expected to be adopted at Council’s next meeting on May 16, leaves the real estate tax rate at $1.27 and the personal property tax rate at $5.85. The transfer to the schools is set at $2,408,493, which would be an increase of $114,690, or 4.8 percent, over this year.
Funding of $193,810 is included for the library, which would be an increase of $46,483, or 31.6 percent. This extra funding will allow the library to be open six days a week, including Fridays, on which days the library has been closed since the outset of the pandemic.
The proposed budget calls for funding two new police officers and a new position of marketing administrative assistant in the office of community development. All city employees are to be given raises of 5 percent.
