Council says no to new fees

Florence City Councilors will hear details next month on changes to a long-range financial plan.  A consultant had worked with city staff over the past few months to identify ways to ensure Florence could provide a consistent level of service. The existing rate schedule for water and waste water appears to be adequate.  Property taxes can provide stable funding for police, but there were a couple of shortfalls expected.

Bob Willoughby – “Just to continue to operate the parks and to adequately maintain our streets, the consultant found it necessary to create two new fees, a street utility fee and a parks utility fee.”

City Manager Bob Willoughby says, however, when the plan made it to the council, they expressed grave concerns about the possibility of adding new fees.

          Bob Willoughby – “And the council said no, that this is not the time to raise fees, we’ve been raising fees to move our utilities forward, to keep them solvent.”

The council directed Willoughby to work with the consultant, City X, to revise the plan without any additional fees.  They’ll hear details on that October Tenth.