Politics & Government

Vote to Increase City Fees Sparks Budget Debate

The move follows the council's approval of the operating budget last month.

The original version of this article has been corrected. An explanation of the correction can be found at the bottom.

The Rockville City Council approved increases to fees for permits, licenses, recreation programs and other city programs and services in a split vote on Monday.

While some council members characterized the increases as necessary to support Councilwoman Bridget Donnell Newton said that the fee hikes will be burdensome to some residents and criticized the budget process.

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The council approved the new fees on a 3 to 2 vote, with Mayor Phyllis Marcuccio and Newton opposed.

City staff recommended the new fees after the city hired the Matrix Consulting Group of Plano, TX to conduct a comprehensive cost and user fee study.

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Calling the budget process “backwards,” Newton said that she would have preferred discussing the study in greater detail “before we are put in the position of adopting a budget that then is reliant on the fees in the new study.”

Newton encouraged residents to look at the fees for parks and recreation and for doing home improvements.

“Some of these fees, I think, especially child care, I think are making it very difficult for people,” she said.

Fees for the city’s Montrose Discovery preschool program will increase by $70 for the 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. program, which currently costs $730 for city residents and $840 for nonresidents.

The council conducted budget work sessions and “made a collective decision as to include the fee revenue in the budget,” said Councilman Piotr Gajewski, who, along with Marcuccio, voted against the budget.

The council discussed the study on May 2.

“I am surprised how you would reconcile voting against raising these fees, having voted for the budget,” Gajewski said to Newton.

“The problem is that because we didn’t have all this information when we voted for the budget, we weren’t sure exactly what fees were being raised and to what limit,” Newton said. “I think there are better ways to do this whole process and hopefully next time around we’ll do that.”

Gajewski said that Newton should propose budget cuts “because these fees are necessary to fund the budget.”

The fee hikes increase the minimum building permit fee for residential properties by $30 and for commercial properties by $15 to $115 for all properties.

Other fees include a $10 increase—to $50—in the license inspection fee for family or group day cares and increases to registration fees for team sports through the city’s recreation department, including for adult volleyball (from $225 to $275 per team), coed softball (from $750 to $795) and adult basketball (from $705 to $745).

Other fees, such as dog licenses (50 cents to $1 a month) remain unchanged. 

The city’s last comprehensive user fee study was last conducted more than 10 years ago, said Gavin Cohen, the city’s finance director.

“The last one didn’t serve to bring all the fees together as we’ve tried to in this resolution,” Cohen said.

Marcuccio said it was hard to see how the city arrived at some of the fees.

“Some of these fees you just wonder ‘Why?’ and ‘How did that come about quite the way it did?’ she said, adding that she did not vote for the budget, “so I have no problem voting against this.”

Gajewski, who is opposing Marcuccio for mayor in November, commended the mayor for voting against the budget and for citing a concern—shared by Gajewski—about the level of taxes it contained.

“Given that your concern was against the tax increase, I don’t understand how you see our budget being funded,” he said. “If it’s not through taxes and it’s not through fees, there’s no money to fund the programs that were passed.”

Marcuccio suggested that, “All you have to do is scrap the cost allocation plan and you’ll find a lot of that money right there.”

The council adopted the cost allocation plan, developed by Matrix Consulting, in April 2010, as a way of identifying the true cost of providing specific city services, including indirect costs related to program administration.

“That doesn’t bring in revenue,” Gajewski said of Marcuccio’s suggestion to scrap the plan.

“No, but it spends more revenue, is the point,” Marcuccio said.

Councilman Mark Pierzchala said that Marcuccio “mischaracterized [the cost allocation plan] tremendously” and put the fees in the context of RedGate Golf Course, a city facility that Pierzchala has proposed shutting down.

“Without the cost allocation program, without this fee increase, RedGate’s out the door right now,” Pierzchala said.

Greens fees for RedGate do not change under the new fee schedule.

The $812,000 in new revenue that the city will generate through the fee increases is equal to about what the city is spending on the golf course, including $630,000 for its operation and $166,000 for improvements to the course and its facilities, Pierzchala said.

Pierzchala said that, during their current term in office, neither Newton nor Marcuccio had proposed a way to cut the budget without increasing taxes or fees.

“If you want to hold the line on spending that’s fine, but you have to name how you’re going to do it,” he said. “And you haven’t. So I’m voting for this because somebody’s got to fund the budget.”

Pierzchala said that he would not support dipping into the city’s reserves to balance the budget as the city did in fiscal 2011.

Councilman John Britton made light of his colleagues "falling all over themselves to figure out who wants to cut taxes more and more."

The council had "long discussions" with city staff about the appropriate level of fee increases, he said.

“If we want the services that we have, that attract us, that keep us here—I agree with one thing you said, Councilman Pierzchala—we have to pay for them,” Britton said.

Correction: The original version of this article mischaracterized Councilman John Britton's statement about the fiscal 2012 budget. Britton's statement that he supported a tax increase and the $100 homeowners tax credit included was meant to be "flip and tongue-in-cheek," Britton said in an email. Britton, in fact, voted against including the $100 tax credit and supported leaving the tax rate unchanged. The second and third paragraphs from the bottom have been changed in this version. Rockville Patch regrets the error.


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