Residents question 3 taxes for Phenix City at same time

Some Phenix City residents voiced support for a growing city during a town hall meeting on Tuesday but many don’t think the city can handle proposed increases in sales tax, water and sewer rates and garbage fees.

More than 100 people filled the Central Activities Center to hear Mayor Eddie Lowe and councilmembers make pitches to improve the city with growing needs. The proposal would increase the sales tax by one-fourth of a percent and water and sewer rates by about 3 percent.

Lowe said leaders are doing their best to deal with issues facing a city that has grown from 27,000 to 36,000 residents.

-“We want to create an environment where we can do more for the city and in turn do more for the citizens,” the mayor said. “Again, this is a proposal. While I tell you that we are going to talk about it, there may be some things we have some wiggle room on. We want to do the right thing out front for people to see what we are doing.”

Finance Director Steve Smith said the cost of garbage collection has increased 20 percent. If the city is successful in negotiating a better rate, it would reduce the cost of the service for residents. Without a reduction, the fee would go to $18.40 per month under the proposed plan, although the service cost $23.90 per household.

 Smith said the proposed sales tax would generate about $1.2 million a year for the city if approved. The increase would push the city’s sales tax to 4 percent with another 5 percent for school and state taxes, pushing the total to 9 percent. "

Some residents feared the higher tax would increase retail activity across the river in Columbus.

The fee for water would jump to $1.26 for the average customer per month.

Carol Avant looked over the proposal and told councilmembers she didn’t feel the city could handle three taxes.

 “I don’t think we can have three increases at one time,” she said.

 Councilmember Jim Cannon said running the city government is 10 times harder than running a business.

 “I’m telling y’all we inherited a hornets nest,” he said. “We may not pass these taxes.”

Lowe and other city officials tried to explain why the city faced problems in water and sewer service.

 “There were things that were not done correctly that are coming to fruition,” he said. “We are just now finding out about it.”

For years, Phenix City thought it could treat 7.75 million gallons of water daily to meet standards for the Alabama Department of Environmental Management and the Environmental Protection Agency. A study reveled the city could barely treat 3 million gallons of water to meet state and federal standards.

 “We can ill afford to have business done like that,” Lowe said. “There were things that were done knowingly wrong.”

The city was hit with a $27,950 penalty from ADEM in September 2014 in the operation of its wastewater treatment plant. A supplemental project was presented to the state and ADEM reduce the penalty to $9,300, the mayor said.

Lowe told residents that information listed on Facebook and other social media websites wasn’t true.

 “We have not done anything to keep public out of the business,” he said.

This story was originally published August 25, 2015 at 11:00 PM with the headline "Residents question 3 taxes for Phenix City at same time."