11-30-16 Council Agenda Packet - amended

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CE,O|CFFS|M2016 ITY OF UGENEREGON ONSERVATION INANCE EASIBILITY TUDY AY The City of Eugene levies its permanent tax rate of $7.0058 per $1,000 of taxable assessed value; although the effective tax rate paid in FY2016 is expected to be about $6.90 per $1,000 of assessed 25 value due to the impact of the urban renewal tax increment calculation on overlapping tax rates. The table to the rightsummarizes the estimated revenues and costs ofvarious levels of mill increase. For example, anincrease of $0.1616per $1000 of assessed value would generate roughly $2.5 million per year at a cost of $33per year for 0.0970$1,500,000 $20 the average household, 0.1293$2,000,000 $27 notwithstanding any Measure 5 0.1616$2,500,000 $33 compression. See Appendix C for 0.1939$3,000,000 $40 implementation procedures and ballot 0.2263$3,500,000 $47 language requirements. Parks Service Fee City serviceor utilityfees are typically set to recover part or all of the costs of a group of services broadly accessed by occupants of property in a city, such as police, fire, and parks. These fees are billed to persons who occupy or have use of developed property. Unlike electricity, water, stormwater,and sewer utility services, such a fee would fund services that are not delivered directly to the property and are not directly measurable. The purpose of the fee is to provide stable 26 funding to ensure the services remain available to the community.Several municipalities in Oregon have adopted service fees to supplement various city services, including public safety services, such as police and fire departments, and parks and recreation. City service fees may be imposed by ordinance or by placing a measure on the ballot. The City of Eugene currently imposes stormwater andwastewater service fees. These feesare included in customers’ monthly water bills. A flat service fee for parks and recreation could be added to the monthly statements in a similar manner. In this case, the city would need to work with 27 the Eugene Water and Electric Board (EWEB) to include a fee on the utility’s bills.While the stormwater and wastewater fees arerequired to be collected by EWEB under the city charter, there is no such requirement for other types of fees, and EWEB would have to agree to collect the fee. Alternatively, the city could develop and implement a billing process separate from EWEB; however, administrative costs would be much higher and the collection rate would likely be lower. It is also possible to structure the fee in order to provide reduced fees for multi-family housing, low-income households, and seniors, as other municipalities have done when implementing a service fee. A measure on the May 2013 ballot asked Eugene voters if they would rather pay a capped, monthly service fee to maintain funding for certain community services, or have those services reduced or 28 eliminated. The fee was defeated at the ballot, with only 33 percent support. If approved, the measure would have authorized a monthly fee to maintain public safety services, homeless and 25 City of Eugene FY2016 Budget 26 Revenue Team, Report to the City of Eugene Budget Committee, April 2014, http://eugene-or.gov/2582/Revenue-Team 27 EWEB is an administrative unit of the City of Eugene, Oregon (the City) with responsibilities for operation of the water and electric utilities delegated by City Charter to the publicly elected board of five commissioners. 28 Revenue Team, Report to the City of EugeneBudget Committee, April 2014, http://eugene-or.gov/2582/Revenue-Team TTPL::CFD19 HE RUST FOR UBLIC AND ONSERVATION INANCE EPARTMENT