The Salem City Council has agreed to continue a $1 a month surcharge to the city’s garbage collector DBS through January but NOT pass the cost along to the city’s residential trash customers.
The decision came despite warnings from the City’s Finance Director Keli Roth and Public Works Director Annette Solo that the decision will create a further deficit for the trash fund which had been slowly pulling out of the red.
Solo says the garbage fund is not the only fund facing inflationary pressure. She explained what is happening at the water plant.
“Almost weekly that we are getting additional surcharges. When they send a letter it’s $100 but it’s a $100 increase per ton so when you are ordering a tanker you are talking several thousands dollars in increases on one tanker. So there is a second fund that all these issues are going to have to be addressed by not increasing water or garbage rates.”
But Councilman Jim Koehler said everyone is facing tough times and he wanted to hold off on passing along the $1 a month surcharge. Councilman Royce Bringwald and Craig Morton joined Koehler in voting against passing along the surcharge. Mayor Nic Farley cast the only no vote.
“I do think we need to do something and we shouldn’t kick the can down the road on these fund balances either. We’ve been really good at getting better and I understand everybody is feeling the pressure. But I want to make sure we are setting up the city financially and not leaving it in a worse spot.”
Roth says not passing on the surcharge is costing the city $2,837 a month.
The council will look at the surcharge again in January. DBS has asked for the surcharge to continue until diesel costs drop below $5 a gallon.
The council also had the first reading of the tax levy extension for the 2022 property tax bills. Roth is projecting a 2.85-percent increase over what was collected last year. After abatements on bonds being paid from other tax sources, the levy will total $1,347,493. The levy will come back before the city council next month for final approval.
