Budget and rates split votes in Coulee Dam

Although they passed a $9.6 million budget unanimously, the mayor had to break two ties to get to that point at a Coulee Dam council meeting Monday night.

The sticking points were around changes to rates for utilities that Councilmember Keith St. Jeor said he didn’t recall coming up in budget workshops.

It wasn’t about a lot of money — up to $200 in total, the mayor said, for a handful of people eligible to receive lower rates due to low income.

But because rates hadn’t been raised or lowered evenly for all, across the board, St. Jeor didn’t feel right about the rate changes that he didn’t recall ever discussing.

“I just can’t see raising something for somebody and lowering it for somebody else,” St. Jeor said during a hearing on the proposed budget.

On a vote to change the Business and Organization tax the city charges itself on its garbage service from 5 percent to 18 percent, St. Jeor voted alone against it. It passed 3-1.

The passage set the B&O rate the same for the garbage fund as on the water and sewer funds.

The council voted to increase rates for electricity by about five percent, with discounts for income-eligible customers bumping up from 25 and 30 percent to 30 and 35 percent.

The council vote was 2-2, with members David Schmidt and Gayle Swagerty approving, while St. Jeor and Councilmember Ben Alling voted no. Mayor Greg Wilder broke the tie.

That pattern followed for the vote on increasing garbage rates. While most people will see no change at all, rates on the smallest containers, those less that 65 gallons, at residences will go down by 15 percent or more. Rates for the large containers used in commercial and industrial contexts will go up about 2.5 percent.

That rate change also passed 2-2, with the tie broken by Wilder.

The council then passed 4-0 the first reading of the 2018 budget totaling $9,658,275, which includes nearly $5.8 million for the sewer treatment fund.

The city is building a new wastewater treatment plant.