Alderman Jamie Phillips proposed Monterey Officials raise garbage rates by $8 in an effort to make Monterey’s Sanitation Department sustainable.
The proposal came Tuesday as Aldermen and the Finance Committee continued budget work. Mayor Alex Garcia said currently, the town is subsidizing the sanitation department. Garcia said that proposal could put too much burden on residential customers.
“What if we did it like I said in a percentage,” Garcia said. “That way it’s not you know, a lot of businesses, our commercials are going up a little more and our residential aren’t.”
Phillips said if Monterey raised the garbage rates by $8 across the board the sanitation department would be able to get out of the negative.
“We got 1,059 customers that would bring in $101,000 a year,” Phillips said. “That would be enough to make it self-sustainable, and that would bring us out of the red.”
The committee also looked at ways they can further reduce spending in the town’s upcoming budget. Garcia said he would like to look at what the town has budgeted for telephone bills.
“I just see these numbers that are a little inflated in my eyes anyway, I would like to review all the telephone bills,” Garcia said. “Like for city hall $4,000 a year. I know we have multiple lines and I get that, but you know the police department is $16,000.”
Phillips said the committee looked at a one-cent property tax increase. Phillips said the increase would not do much to get the town’s budget out of the hole.
“We looked at property tax,” Phillips said. “A one-cent property tax increase only brings us in $5,000, so it’s negligible.”
Phillips said the town’s budget still contains a three percent increase for all city employees next year.
The finance committee will look into coming up with a garbage rate percentage increase and also look for other ways to close the gap in the overall budget at the next finance committee meeting on April 29.
