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As such, the program supports, to its own extent, several current City Council goals:
<br />-- Safe Community
<br />-- Healthy Natural and Built Environment
<br />-- Effective, Accountable Municipal Government (because the City of Eugene reports
<br />voluntarily under this program)
<br />Financial and/or Resource Considerations
<br />The proposed program budget for FY05 is $97,724. This is based on the authorized FY04 budget plus
<br />an inflation factor of three percent for wages and fringe benefits, an inflation factor of one percent for
<br />materials and supplies, and an increase in the City Attorney Fees line item. (For the current fiscal year,
<br />$2,000 was budgeted for legal fees. Actual expenditures incurred through January 31 were $4,200.)
<br />At the beginning of each calendar year, staff polls all participating businesses to ascertain their FTE
<br />levels for the preceding calendar year, and fees are calculated based on the information received. The
<br />calculation is somewhat different this year because of the $2,000 fee cap.
<br />Without the cap, the recommendation would be $14.35/FTE ($97,724 divided by total reported FTE of
<br />6,810). With the cap, it was necessary to arrive at a cutoff point (above which companies would pay
<br />$2,000, and below which they would pay an amount per FTE) such that the required revenue would be
<br />generated, and such that a business would not be unduly penalized for being immediately above the
<br />cutoff point. This is possible with accounting software. In the current recommendation, the cutoff point
<br />is (technically, just above) 63 FTE. Up to that point, the fee would be $31.65/FTE. At 63 FTE, the fee
<br />would be $1,994 (still $31.65/FTE). At 64 FTE, the fee would be the maximum of $2,000, or
<br />$31.25/FTE. The per-FTE costs would then continue to drop as company size rises. The largest
<br />participating company reported 2003 FTE of 1,207, and so would be assessed $1.66/FTE, or $2,000.
<br />The Toxics Board was unanimous in approving this calculation methodology for this year.
<br />Of the 73 participating companies, 44 reported 63 or fewer FTE. Of the remaining 29 (and of the entire
<br />73), only 11 (those with 145 FTE or above) would see their fees actually decrease from 2003 under this
<br />proposal. This is because companies with FTE levels between 64 and 144 (of which there are 18) paid
<br />less than $2,000 in 2003, but would pay the maximum of $2,000 (though at a lesser per-FTE rate than
<br />$31.65) this year. In other words, the fee cap is bad news for 44 companies, mixed (but still bad) news
<br />for 18, and good news for 11.
<br />A few examples:
<br />Proposed
<br /> FTE 2003 fee $/FTE 2004 fee $/FTE
<br /> 15 $ 208.80 $13.92 $ 474.75 $31.65
<br /> 50 696.00 13.92 1,582.50 31.65
<br /> 100 1,392.00 13.92 2,000.00 20.00
<br /> 250 3,480.00 13.92 2,000.00 8.00
<br /> 1,000 13,920.00 13.92 2,000.00 2.00
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<br /> L:\CMO\2004 Council Agendas\M040310\S040310C.doc
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