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Thursday, October 08, 2009

St. Paul to increase rate for street maintenance

Topic requested...Please click onto the COMMENTS for the story.

posted by Bob at Thursday, October 08, 2009

10 Comments:

Anonymous Pioneer Press said...

Increase for a home is about 8%
By Dave Orrick and Patrick B. Anderson
Pioneer Press
Updated: 10/07/2009 11:44:59 PM CDT


The St. Paul City Council on Wednesday approved an increase in homeowner fees to pay for services like snowplowing and street sweeping.

But not before critics had their say.

"While we continue to see these increases in fees, we're seeing less services," said Dan Laux, a resident and staff member of the management team at the Cosmopolitan, a 255-unit apartment building in Lowertown. "It seems like we're paying more for less."

City officials said increases in the cost of salt, petroleum products like asphalt and lighting helped drive the increase, which appears to average about 8 percent per homeowner but is likely to be stiffer for some businesses.

At issue was the roughly $28.5 million Right-of-Way Maintenance Program and a public hearing on its 2009 annual assessment. Like a property tax, the annual assessment is charged to every property owner each fall.

But unlike a property tax, this assessment isn't based on the value of the property but on how many feet of the property front a street or alley — and on a fee structure that has drawn criticism from the business community.

"If you look at them, if you're a home on Grand Avenue, you pay $3.13 per linear foot, but if you're a business, you pay $7.68, and we're trying to figure out why that is," said Matt Anfang, president of the Greater St. Paul Building Owners and Managers Association. Since last year, the group has met with the city to try to decipher the fees and how they pay for services.

"We're about two-thirds of the way there," he said.
Tanya Hemphill, a general manager at Cushman & Wakefield, which manages the First National Bank Building downtown, said the building's annual assessment is increasing by 18.4 percent. "We're just trying to understand what additional services we're getting."

Public Works Director Bruce Beese said downtown properties pay more because the streets downtown receive more services. For example, downtown streets are swept three times a week from April through October, while residential streets are swept twice total, once in April and once in October. In the winter, crews also remove snow from curbs downtown; in the neighborhoods, it just piles up.

Beese said the city did cut back on some services, such as street and alley resurfacing, but such measures only kept the increases from being steeper.

10:06 AM  
Anonymous story continued said...

Rising prices for salt, asphalt and other supplies accounted for only some of the increases in assessments passed on to property owners, Beese said. "People forget that these services were heavily being supported by reserves, and that was not sustainable," he said. In other words, as for other services, the city for years was dipping into savings accounts to keep fees and taxes low. Righting that imbalance has been a cornerstone of Mayor Chris Coleman's administration. Doing so has meant hiking taxes and fees.

"It's really extortion," Jimmy Sande, a business owner and resident of the Summit-University neighborhood, said after addressing council members. He said that when he received the notice of the 2009 assessments, "as I was reading it, I swear to God, I saw three (public works) guys working with one shovel."

The fees, which the city council approved unanimously Wednesday without comment, will show up as bills in the mail in several weeks. They're due in December.

In other business, the council took a step closer to making it illegal to host a party where alcohol is made available to anyone under 21.

Jean Mulvey, executive director of Minnesota Mothers Against Drunk Driving, said the new law would make it easier to target facilitators of underage drinking. She was one of two people who spoke in favor of the proposal.

No one spoke against the so-called "social host law," which has been adopted by 31 Minnesota cities or counties, according to the state Office of Traffic Safety.

If it passes, hosts would be responsible for making sure everyone at their party is old enough to drink legally, police Sgt. Paul Schnell said.

"People will have to make sure who's in their home," Schnell said.

The stricter measure would not apply to unaware property owners, just those who were responsible for planning and hosting the event. It would be a misdemeanor to violate the proposed ordinance, which also carries an exception for drinking during religious observances.

The ordinance is expected to be voted on next week and would go into effect a month later if approved.

10:06 AM  
Anonymous EVA NG said...

It is time to change how our city is run. We cannot stand by as the budget of the city grows while our citizens cut. Our businesses and citizens struggle under the weight of lower incomes and rising taxes and fees while the current administration continues to expand local government size and spending.

Many of our neighborhoods are infested with crime, plagued by foreclosures, and blighted by vacant buildings. It will take effort from all of us to turn these around and renew these neighborhoods but it will happen.

10:12 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

42% increase in taxes and higher fees.

So, how's that bicycle advisory board and new Human Rights Department working out for you, Repke?

Pffft.

I can hear Randy Kelly laughing from here.

4:22 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Does anyone here know what the "St. Paul Heroes" is?

If so, please explain what you knwo about it.

8:02 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

This might be good. Maybe now city employees will stop leaning on their shovels and stop their 2 hour lunches.

11:01 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Does anyone here know what the "St. Paul Heroes" is?

A sandwich shop?

That probably failed because of taxes?

10:18 AM  
Anonymous ROW 28Million said...

Swiftee gives Accurate Info n other post,apparantly no one knows how to Link the ROW Ordinance author Kathy Lantry, City Attry Lisa Vieth, re: 28 Mill
is Ludicrous as Property Taxes already Budgeted in Public Works
BAIT AND SWITCH Item 47 at the 7Oct09 Public Hearing Another scheduled 4Nov09 SOME ONE HAS TO MAKE CITY ACOUNTABLE PS Sharon also was Sanctioned for 3 years at the Big E-Dem
http://stpaul.granicus.com/MetaViewer.php?view_id=37&clip_id=1473&meta_id=77545

4:21 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

does anyone know if the mayor, or city council and others are getting some extra cash under the table because of this tax.

7:40 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

"Sharon also was Sanctioned for 3 years at the Big E-Dem"

It should have been 10 years to life.....whichever comes last!

10:11 PM  

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