Columbia City Council approves budget that cuts from streetlights, fire department

City Council also raised bus fares and utility rates to cover costs.

By Stephanie Clark

Published Sept. 16, 2008

The Columbia City Council unanimously approved next year's budget on Monday, which will expand some city programs and while also raising utility rates.

The changes made to the city's $397.6 million budget will impact such services as Public Health and Human Services, city utility rates and the Columbia Transit system, which was a highly debated topic among attending residents.

Columbia residents were at the meeting to voice complaints regarding various budget issues.

Under next year's budget, the Public Health and Human Services will raise the fees for various services including immunizations, clinic visits for sexually transmitted diseases and tuberculosis testing.

For customers of Columbia Water and Light, fees for water will increase 5.5 percent and fees for electricity will increase 5 percent.

The most debated topic of the night was the approved increase in bus fares, which doubled. Students will have to pay 50 cents with a valid student ID.

"It isn't so much the raising of the rates that I'm upset about, because I would be willing to pay $50 if we could get to where we need to go in a timely manner," Columbia resident Christina Herren said. "It is very difficult to rely on the bus, especially when you have a doctor's appointment and you plan on getting there and out of the blue, they cancel the run for that stop."

The complaints weren't so much directed at the increase in bus fare as they were to the reliability of the transportation system and the general attitude of the bus employees. Among the various complaints made by local residents were in regard to disclosed cancellations of random bus stops, as well as the general manner of the bus employees, the timeliness of the transportation system and the limited hours in which the transit runs.

"I would like to see them go back and run the bus in the evening, Monday through Saturday," Herren said. "The Saturday schedules are very different than the weekday just to get around Columbia so if they could put back every 40 minutes and then also have it run in the evenings, people could be working more and contributing more with taxes and I'm sure a lot with trying to save money on gas and with environment issues, a lot of people would be less willing to use their cars."

Some residents said they are not bothered by a rate increase, as long as there were changes to the service.

"It looks like they need to make some changes that are going to be pretty reasonable, so I was happy about that," Columbia resident Michael Collins said. "The rates are going up, but when they go up, they really should have better service."

In response to a Columbia resident's inquiry regarding whether members of the City Council utilize the transit system, Sixth Ward Councilwoman Barbara Hoppe responded.

"I think that some of the issues that you point to are reasons probably that we don't use regularly," Hoppe said. "So we really need to gather a bus system that serves not only people that don't have cars and can't afford cars, but people who do have cars that chose to ride the buses for many good reasons."

Various cuts were made to financially support the budget, like cuts of $100,000 from street lighting costs and $17,500 overtime pay for the fire department.

"With the way the economy is going to go in the next year or two, we really need to see tonight as sort of the opening volley and improve in our bus service and make it much more reliable and have it go more places," First Ward Councilman Paul Sturtz said.

Twenty-six new city employment positions will also be added. Included in these positions will be four police officers and two firefighters.

City employees will also be provided a 25-cent per hour raise in compliance with the new budget, as well as potential merit raises for up to a 2 percent increase.

The budget will become effective Oct. 1.