City Pulls Plug on Streetlight Fee Hike

New Port Richey property owners won't see an increase in their annual streetlight assessments from the city next year.

After hearing overwhelming opposition to a proposed 36 percent increase, including a complaint from the Pasco School District, the city council voted 4-1 not to raise the fee. The decision came Wednesday during the city's first formal hearing on the city's proposed fiscal year 2012 budget, which takes effect Oct 1.

The idea could have saved the city more than $78,000.

Opposition to the increase came from property owners living inside or outside the city. The major complaint the speakers rallied around? Bills for larger property would be more costly than bills for the average single-family home.

The proposed increase would have raised the assessment for a typical single-family home to $35.50 annually, about $9 more than property owners pay now. The proposed assessments were tied to a property's square footage.

The highest assessment for a residential property would have been $53.24 annually. The highest assessment for a non-residential property would be $6,201 annually for 300,000 square feet of space or more.

The increase was proposed to make the streetlight program 100 percent self-sustaining. Currently, the city's debt-plagued Community Redevelopment Agency foots the majority of the cost.

Mary LeCavalier, who lives in a 2,553-square-foot home on Julian Street, objected to the increase because of the differing amounts. She told the council that if it raised the assessment, the new fee should be "equitable" among all properties. The proposed increase wasn't, she felt.

Virginia Avenue resident Denise Houston urged the council to think of a way to make money without charging residents a new fee, especially since many residents' incomes have not risen recently.

"I didn't get a 36 percent increase" in earnings, she said. "I don't think anybody did."

Chrs Williams, head of planning at Pasco Schools, said Superintendent Heather Fiorentino was against the increase. In addition to school campuses, the district has a garage and school bus parking lot in the city. The district doesn't have a way of generating the money to recover the cost, he said. 

Nick Jordan, a Trinity resident who owns 31,000 square feet of property on U.S. 19 in New Port Richey, joined objections to the increase. He said he his property, which houses offices, is 80 percent vacant. Jordan says he has to borrow money to pay taxes. New Port Richey is losing businesses, he said. The only place that is attracting employers is Trinity.

"I'm 84 years old, and I can't handle it anymore," he said. "Increases, increases, increases."

The lone vote for approving the hike came from .

"I'm inclined to hold my nose and vote for this," he said. However, "I think the speakers have made some good points."

joined the rest of the council in rejecting the hike, but said he thought the city should take another look at how it imposes its streetlight assessment. 

"I wish we had time to completely redo this, but I don't see how" the council could do it this year given the looming budget deadline, he said.

City Manager John Schneiger said it was "impossible" this year.

What to Do About a Bad Budget

If there was anything that "needed to start with prayer," it was the public hearing, Councilwoman said as the meeting opened.

The vote to drop the hike was a bright light for residents and property owners wary of added fees in a bad economy. It was a dim turnaround for the city's budget. Here are some other things city council members shed light on.

• Douglas Haag, city finance director, said the proposed fiscal year 2012 general fund budget has been raised to $18.3 million. The higher totals result from the city's traffic light camera program. Extra accounting resulted in a new gross revenue projection that made the general fund budget balloon by $2.2 million. The net revenue from the cameras is $1.2 million, which is the same as previous projections. 

• The city council, acting as the CRA board, also gave initial approval to the CRA's $2.3 million budget at the meeting. The CRA is anticipated to become essentially a debt service fund next year. The city's general fund is slated in fiscal year 2012 to subsidize 18 positions previously funded by the CRA.

• The city's redevelopment woes have another impact on the budget: a that would bring in businesses and concentrate on other redevelopment issues. The city council decided to keep the position in the budget for the time being and take it up again before the budget goes into effect. The position could be funded with more than $89,000 from an administrative fee the CRA is being asked to pay the general fund in the new budget year.

Councilwoman who raised the need for added emphasis on neighborhoods when the job was first brought up last month, stressed the need for added code enforcement officers in the city. She said the grass on some property is at the height it was eight years ago, if not worse.

Schneiger, Marlowe and Haag gave strong reccomendations for the development director job, although Schneiger pointed out the city now has an additional $78,000 hole.

Schneiger said that the city could apply to Pasco County for Community Development Block grants, which would fund code enforcement officer jobs. Miller said she did not want to wait for the city's grant application to be approved to get the code enforcement officers.

"We need some working code enforcement officers, and we need that ASAP," she said.

So now, on Tuesday, the city council will discuss how to find a way to recover the $78,000, and dig into the development director job and code enforcement positions. The meeting will be a work session. Council members cannot vote at a work session, but they can give direction to city staff.

The city's final public hearing on the budget is scheduled for Sept. 27.