Phenix City Council approves $36.6M budget

Phenix City Council unanimously approved a $36.6 million general fund budget for fiscal year 2016 Tuesday during a meeting at the Fifth Street South Youth Center.

Approval of the budget came just two weeks after the five-member council approved a 3 percent increase in water and sewer rates, an 8 percent hike in garbage fees and one-fourth of a percent increase in the sales tax to fund the spending plan. The fees and tax increases are expected to raise more than $1 million.

The fiscal 2016 budget, which goes into effect on Oct. 1, is a 3.8 percent increase or $1,348,659 more than the fiscal 2015 budget.

Mayor Eddie Lowe praised the efforts of the council and department heads to present a balanced budget. "We are thankful that we got through that process, which is a very, very tough process," the mayor said after the meeting.

"Anytime you do a budget and particularly with the magnitude of the city, it's tough."

Lowe said the budget was examined and tweaked before it was approved 5-0 by all the councilmembers.

"It does balance," Lowe said. "We are not operating in the red. We have never operated in the red. When you talk about raising taxes and all of that, it is the cost of doing business in today's environment."

Under the new water and sewer rates, average water users will pay $1.26 on a combined bill of $42.66.

An estimated $300,000 from the increase will fund more than $9 million in improvements to the wastewater treatment plant and other upgrades to the system.

Disposing of garbage and yard waste will increase from $17 per month to $18.40. And the sales tax will cost 25 cents on a purchase of $100.

The garbage fee and increases in the water and sewer rate go into effect on Oct. 1 while the sales tax starts Jan. 1.

Councilmember Jim Cannon said taxes needed to be raised to build a new fire station on the southwest part of the city.

"We were criticized for raising taxes," he said. "We had to."

Lowe said it would have cost residents a lot more in higher fire insurance rates had the city not approved the budget with the fire station. With 36,000 people,

Lowe said the city is growing and must come into compliance with certain needs.

"We are too big to be small," he said. "We have 36,000 people. We have some compliance issues to keep homeowners fire insurance down."

Although Councilmembers Gail N. Head and Chris Blackshear opposed the new fees and tax increase two weeks ago, both joined Cannon, Arthur Day Jr. and Lowe to approve the fiscal 2016 budget.

Head said she struggled with the small sales tax and the garbage fee because the city hadn't negotiated with Advanced Disposal on a possible rebate on the service.

"I thought if we were going to pass it, I would have liked to have waited until we negotiated the contract," she said.

"Then I was a little concerned about the sales tax because it wasn't but just a little bit. People who have businesses have to rework everything when the sales tax goes up and I have heard some of those concerns."

Head said she couldn't go against the fiscal budget Tuesday with raises for police and firefighters, which are employees the city is trying to raise to market level in pay.

"We all have good hearts and we are in it for the right reasons but we can just disagree sometimes and we do that," she said.

"We still love and care about each other. We care about this city."

In other action, the council:

Approved a total of $10,000 in grants, presenting $2,000 each to five nonprofit organizations.

Money was raised from the Mayor's Ball for Education and Charity in June. Organizations included The Children and Family Connection of Russell County, Circles of Transformation, The Russell County Child Advocacy Center, United to Save Ourselves and the East Alabama Humane Society.

This story was originally published September 15, 2015 at 10:34 PM with the headline "Phenix City Council approves $36.6M budget ."