Cumberland Times-News

Local News

April 27, 2010

Proposed city budget includes trash, sewer rate hikes

Cory Galliher Cumberland Times-News

CUMBERLAND — Cumberland citizens may soon experience a 14 percent increase in trash rates and a 10 percent increase in sewer rates. The hike could lead to a 6.7 percent increase in the typical monthly utility bill, which also includes fees for water and the Chesapeake Bay Restoration Fund, according to the city’s proposed fiscal year 2011 budget.

The budget information was presented by City Administrator Jeff Repp at Tuesday’s public meeting of the mayor and City Council.

Mayor Lee Fiedler said the projection may not represent an actual increase. “What Jeff brings to us is what it’s going to take to keep those funds fully paying for themselves,” said Fiedler. “That’s his recommendation. We have to wait until the whole budget is in, and as we see the whole thing we can make a decision about what will happen.”

“We’ll take a look at the whole thing. ... it doesn’t mean that it’s going up to that value,” said Fiedler. “It means that rate is what we’d need to stay even and have the fund pay for itself. We’ll take a look at the whole project after we put down everybody’s budget and see where we want to go.”

The general fund for fiscal year 2011 will be $17,509,938, according to the information presented by Repp. The majority of that money is tax revenue.

The primary financial issue facing the city is the lack of highway user revenue from the state, which has led to a severe drop in available intergovernmental funding. The city also faces a $130,000 reduction in police aid funding.

Real property and retail property tax rates are slated to remain stable at .964 cents and $2.60, respectively. These rates have remain unchanged since fiscal year 2009.

Personnel costs will be about $14 million, due largely to a reduction in the number of part-time employees. The city intends to employ 243 people full time, which Repp said represented a decrease from the usual 266 to 270 employees due to unfilled positions and reductions from early retirement programs. It also intends to employ 37 part-time workers, which Repp described as a significant reduction.

Health insurance costs are up 10.8 percent because of changes to the plan offered by the city. Retirement costs have also increased because of early retirements, but workman’s compensation is decreased due to the efforts of the Workman’s Compensation Committee.

Repp will continue to present information on the proposed budget throughout the coming months. On May 11, Repp will present the police department, fire department and economic development budgets. On May 25 he will present the administrative services and public works budgets and a constant yield tax hearing will be held. On June 8 there will be a hotel/motel tax hearing and the first reading of the completed budget ordinance. The last reading of the budget ordinance will take place on June 22.

Cory Galliher can be reached at cgalliher@times-news.com.

Text Only
Local News