The Kirkland City Council received an update on 2011-2012 utility and garbage collection rate proposals during the Aug. 4 council meeting. The result – potential increases across the board.
The council has to approve all rates by the Oct. 16 meeting.
One of the biggest percentage increases could come from waste water, or sewer, rates with a proposed 8.5 percent jump in 2011 and 2.99 percent increase in 2012. The result would be a $7.80 increase per month from the current $54.10 to $61.90 by 2012 for a single-family household.
The flow of water to faucets in Kirkland could get more expensive as the city proposes a 4.5 percent increase each of the next two years. A single-family household is paying $35.60 per month in 2010 and could pay $36.60 in 2011 and $37.61 in 2012.
The city has had to do some shifting with how citizens pay for fire suppression services and use of water from fire hydrants, thanks to a state lawsuit out of Seattle. The courts have ruled that water usage for fire departments has to come out of the general fund for the city and not utilities. The result is reflected in the change in cost for the City of Kirkland.
Surface-water rates would increase 5 percent each of the next two years under the proposal.
“We haven’t raised rates since about 2006, so this will be the first increase that we have had since that time,” said Interim Public Works Director Ray Steiger.
For a single-family household, the rates will increase from $14.15 per month in 2010 to $14.86 in 2011 and $15.60 in 2012.
The city is also trying to maintain a reserve for emergency and replacement purposes that is critical to maintain uninterrupted utility services. The slow economy and low levels of new construction in Kirkland has lowered the revenue from connection fees, meaning that the city must make up that revenue in other ways.
“We can’t necessarily predict economy, cost of materials, so that is why you have those stabilization rates,” said Steiger.
The city’s reserves are down from where they projected during a 1998 50-year plan, but Steiger told the council that staff expects to be back on pace by 2012.
Garbage rates to increase
The most complicated and costly increase will be in garbage collection rates and taxes. The city has yet to start negotiating with Waste Management Inc. (WMI) for a new contract for 2014 and beyond.
“We just got authorization to negotiate with Waste Management …,” Steiger told the council. “I don’t know where they are going but all of the other cities who are negotiating are seeing 25 or 20 percent increases. We don’t anticipate that and we are going to work very hard not to be there, but as we get closer we will have a better sense.”
The projection for increases in total cost per single-family household takes those negotiations into account and attempts to make the increase gradual to avoid a surge in 2014.
The city is also considering a Street Preservation tax on garbage collection to help pay for road-surface repairs. With the roads tax the garbage rate increase would be 7.99 percent for 2011. That increase would raise the cost for a single family from $31.92 per month to $34.49 in 2011. The 2012 increase would be dependent on negotiations with WMI. Without the Street Preservation tax, the increase would be 3.99 percent, or a cost of $33.04 per month.
