TAX AND UTILITY RATE HIKES LOOMING FOR PENSACOLA RESIDENTS!!

Mayor's budget to raise fees, shake up City Hall

 Written by Jamie Page jepage@pnj.com 11:00 PM, Aug. 8, 2011|

 In his first State of the City address,
Pensacola Mayor Ashton Hayward on
Monday announced a restructuring of city
government and a plan to increase city fees
in an effort to step up economic
development and protect the environment.
Hayward, who took office Jan. 10 as the
city's first strong mayor in 80 years, rolled
out his $222.1 million 2011-12 fiscal year
budget proposal at a special City Council
meeting attended by a crowd of city
employees and other residents.
The City Council must approve the budget,
which represents a 2.46 percent increase
over the current budget. The council will
begin discussing it at meetings on Aug. 16
and 17.
The new budget includes a 5.5 percent
reduction in the property tax rate, which
Hayward previously announced. Fee
increases for natural gas, sanitation,
building inspections and stormwater
 management would add the additional
revenue to help make it a balanced
budget, as required by the city charter.
"I am pleased to submit this budget without
any increases in costs to employees for
benefits, no layoffs and no reductions in
the level of service to our citizens,"
Hayward said.
"As mayor, I am sensitive to the fact that
our employees have not had a
compensation increase since fiscal year
2008, but I am also sensitive to the
thousands of unemployed citizens in our
city who have no income, no health care
and no retirement benefits."

PART 2

CITY TAX ILLUSIONS

Former Councilwoman Diane Mack gives this analysis:

It is fiscal year budget time for all local government bodies. If you are a City of Pensacola resident, here are some tax realities for you to ponder.

The following are projections for FY 2012:

Property taxes paid by City property owners..................................................................  $ 12,142,200

Franchise fees passed on by utilities to City customers......................................................      8,637,700

Utility taxes charged by the City to utility customers...........................................................      6,723,900

Communication services taxes passed on by phone and cable companies to City customers       3,627,700

Portion of natural gas utility (ESP) profits paid into City coffers by City gas cusomters.........      2,000,000

When you look at your current property bill, the millage rate doesn't look so bad:  4.2895 mils

But suppose you were paying the true cost of your City government through property taxes instead of through franchise fees, utility and communications taxes, and ESP profits. What would your millage be? 11.7044 mils

And if Escambia County natural gas customers weren't subsidizing City government in the amount of $6,000,000 per year, what would your millage be?  13.8240 mils

The setting of property tax rates is by law a very public and transparent process, so your government tries to keep property taxes as low as possible within the State-set caps. It makes for great feel-good propaganda. On the other hand, the setting of fees and other taxes and gas rates is as quiet a process as a government can manage to get away with, especially as State of Florida law is complicit in the game, so it's much easier to increase those.

I offer these insights in my continuing effort, as time permits, to keep interested citizens informed. As Thomas Jefferson and others so often stated, an informed citizenry is the best defense against tyranny and oppresssion.

Have a thoughtful weekend.....

Kind regards,

Diane

PART 3

ESP PROPOSES RATE INCREASES

IN NATURAL GAS RATES OF 6.8%

8/4/2011

Honorable Ashton J. Hayward

City of Pensacola

180 Governmental Center

Pensacola, Florida 32521

Dear Mayor Hayward:

We are enclosing our report on Pensacola (“ESP”). Our report presents the results of a comprehensive study, including a projection of ESP’s financial position for the period 2011‐2015, a cost of service analysis to evaluate the cost responsibility for each of the various classes of customers served, and the development of recommended rate charges to recover the costs of providing service from the respective classes of customers.

Based on our forecast of revenues under existing rates and revenue requirements for the

2011 through 2015 fiscal years, we recommend an overall rate increase of approximately 6.9 percent, or $2.8 million per year, in base rates (distribution and customer charges) plus the consistent application of the annual inflation index adjustment. Our recommended rate adjustments will:

1. Provide funds which are forecast to adequately fund future operation and capital

requirements to prudently maintain ESP’ natural gas system.

2. Provide ESP the ability to maintain its current level of cash reserves for contingencies.

Additionally, we are recommending ESP implement an infrastructure cost adjustment which

will allow ESP to capture the capital costs of government and regulatory body‐mandated

infrastructure replacement and pass those costs on to customers. We are also recommending

a compressed natural gas (“NG” tariff for new CNG filling stations and the addition of up to

$0.10 per Ccf to the PGA calculation to collect for the drawdown made to reserves. We have

assumed in our forecast that recommended rates for all classes will go into effect on October

1, 2011.

We appreciate the opportunity to have worked with ESP staff again. If you have any

questions, or would like to discuss this further, please do not hesitate to contact Tom Sullivan

at 816‐916‐6253 or Greg Macias at 913‐458‐2037.

Very truly yours,

BLACK & VEATCH CORPORATION

Russell A. Feingold

Vice President

Gregory E Macias

Project Manager

PART 4

10% INCREASE IN TWO RATE HIKES

PROPOSED BY GULF POWER

Hearing set on Gulf Power rate hike

 Written by Carlton Proctor cproctor@pnj.com  11:00 PM, Aug. 11, 2011|

 The Florida Public Service Commission

could approve the first of two requests by

Gulf Power Co. to raise rates at a hearing

Aug. 23 in Tallahassee.

PSC spokeswoman Cindy Muir said the

interim 4 percent increase, if approved,

would take effect in September.

Hearings on the second phase of the

requested rate increase — a 6 percent

increase — are tentatively scheduled later

this fall. A date has not been set.

If the full 10 percent increase is approved,

the average cost of 1,000 kilowatt hours

for residential customers would jump from

about $122 to $134.

If the interim rate increase is approved, but

the 6 percent rate increase is denied later

this year, the revenue collected from the

interim rate increase would be refunded to

customers.

Muir said this scenario — where an interim

rate hike is approved but the final increase

 is denied — is not uncommon.

The Commission will host a public hearing

at 10 a.m. on Sept. 15 in Pensacola to take

input on the second stage of the rate

increase request. It will be at the Escambia

County School Board's J.E. Hall Educational

Services Center, 30 E. Texar Drive. 

During that hearing, the public may ask

questions, make statements, or describe

how the rate hike would affect their

personal family budget or business.

The PSC staff will make a record of the

statements and provide excerpts to the

commissioners for their consideration.

To be added to the Belmont-DeVilliers Neighborhood Association mailing list

email sfnewsgal at yahoo.com. 

CAN YOU AFFORD NOT TO MAKE THAT CALL?

If you haven't called the Pensacola mayor's office yet about all the rate AND fee increases currently proposed

in the Mayor's FY2012 budget, plus the 6.9% increase

in natural gas rates by ESP, and a 10% increase

in electricity rate by Gulf Power, 

please think again. 

 

MAYOR ASHTON HAYWARD'S

OFFICE PHONE: 850-435-1696

Here are the email addresses of all the members of City Council. Your council rep will be debating these fee and rate hikes from 9 am to noon on Thursday morning, Aug. 25!

Mayor Ashton Hayward, Email ahayward@ci.pensacola.fl.us

Maren DeWeese, District 3, Email mdeweese@ci.pensacola.fl.us
P.C. Wu, District 1, Email pcwu@ci.pensacola.fl.us
Sherri F. Myers, District 2, Email smyers@ci.pensacola.fl.us
Larry B. Johnson, District 4, Email ljohnson@ci.pensacola.fl.us
John Jerralds, District 5, Email jjerralds@ci.pensacola.fl.us
Brian Spencer, District 6, Email bspencer@ci.pensacola.fl.us
Ronald Townsend, District 7, Email rtownsend@ci.pensacola.fl.us
Megan B. Pratt, At Large District A, Email mpratt@ci.pensacola.fl.us
Sam Hall, At Large District B, Email shall@ci.pensacola.fl.us

PART 1

CALL TO ACTION BY PRESIDENT DOLORES CURRY

Belmont-DeVilliers Neighborhood Association

Dolores Curry, President

Belmont-DeVilliers Neighborhood Association

1007 West Government St.

Pensacola FL 32502

850-438-7614

Dear Members of the Belmont-DeVilliers Neighborhood Association:

If you have read the Pensacola News Journal recently, you already know about the increases in city fees contained in the mayor's FY 2012 Budget proposal:

In his first State of the City address, Pensacola Mayor Ashton Hayward on Monday announced a restructuring of city government and a plan to increase city fees in an effort to step up economic development and protect the environment.

While the new budget includes a much-needed 5.5 percent reduction in the property tax rate that was announced previously by Mayor Hayward, this property tax break will only begin to cover what residents will be paying in increased fees for natural gas, sanitation, building inspections and storm water management.

Therefore, I would urge each of you to call the mayor's office at 850-435-1696 and leave a message with his assistant Rita Lee to let the mayor know that you are against these increased fees during this time of high unemployment, mortgage woes and dwindling pensions.

The City Council will hold Budget Workshops on Tuesday and Wednesday, Aug. 16 and 17. Additional time has been allowed on Thursday morning, August 18, if necessary. These workshops will be held in the Hagler/Mason Conference Room on the 2nd floor of City Hall, 222 Main St., and will begin at 9:00 a.m., with a one-hour (on your own) lunch break. The workshops will resume following the lunch break. Please open the attached agenda for workshop details and attend the workshops if you can.

While we admire the new energy the mayor has brought to City Hall and to this community, now is not the time to raise revenue on the backs of this city's residents.

I welcome your opinions and hope to see you at the budget workshop meetings. Feel free to forward this letter to other residents.

Dee Curry

http://www.pnj.com/article/20110809/NEWS01/108090309/Mayor-s-budget-raise-fees-shake-up-City-Hall

City Council meetings are at 7pm on the second and fourth Thursday of each month. Committee meetings are at 3:15pm on the Mondays preceding the Thursday City Council meetings. Please check the City Calendar for all other scheduled meetings.