Woodland raises utility tax
Wednesday, December 24, 2008 12:59 PM PST
By Leila Summers
Printable version
E-mail this articleWOODLAND -- Woodland City Council on Monday balanced its 2009 budget by dipping into reserves and increasing the public utility tax by one percentage point.
No full-time city jobs will be cut, but the city will lose its part-time code enforcement officer and its seasonal park workers.
Previously, city officials considered cutting two public works employees and a police clerk to fill a $200,000 gap between projected revenues and expenses.
The budget includes 3.12 percent pay hikes for department heads, but they are contingent on favorable performance reviews.
The one-year public utility tax increase — from 5 percent currently to 6 percent next year — is expected to generate $86,000 in 2009, said City Clerk Mari Ripp. The tax is collected only on electric, natural gas, telephone, cellular phone and pager usage in the city, Ripp said.
The rate has remained at 5 percent since 2005, except in 2006, when it raised to 6 percent for one year.
The City Council also decided to borrow $174,000 from its cash reserves.
In all, the $4 million general fund budget is an 8 percent decrease from 2008.
Raising taxes came as a last resort, said Councilman Aaron Christopherson.
“It’s not the direction we wanted to go. We avoided it as much as possible and eventually did it. There was no other way,” he said.
Official/position 2009 2008
Steve Branz, Public Works Director $81,000 $78,400
Rob Stephenson, Police Chief $75,500 $76,600
Tony Brentin, Fire Chief $77, 700 $77,200
Mari Ripp, Clerk/Treasurer $71,900 $71,900
Gina Anderson, deputy clerk/treasurer $61,000 $61,000
Kei Zushi, City Planner $53,300 $52,400
longrangeplan wrote on Dec 24, 2008 5:38 AM:
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