The Ketchikan City Council approved utility rate increases for the city’s water and sewer services at its Thursday night meeting.
The 8% increases, which go into effect Feb. 1, were first recommended by the city’s Finance Director Michelle Johansen at a special budget work session in June. According to Johansen, the rate hikes will fund capital improvement projects, meet wage increases, and pay for increased operating and maintenance costs.
“We have other infrastructure costs that we need to be able to pay for, and in order to do that, we have to start increasing those rates to pay for that,” Johansen said.
Amendments to the city’s municipal code, including utility rate increases, must be voted on by the city council in two separate meetings before taking effect. Both rate hikes were first approved on Jan. 6 in separate 4-2 votes.
Councilmember Jack Finnegan voted in favor of the utility rate hikes at both meetings. While he isn’t excited about the increases, he said they’re necessary to fund the city’s water and sewer services.
“I didn’t see any alternative to creating the revenue that we needed, apart from increasing those rates the way that we have in this most recent vote,” Finnegan said.
Councilmembers Jai Mahtani and Riley Gass voted against the rate hikes. Mahtani said he consistently votes against utility rate increases.
“I believe our citizens are taxed heavily, and we need to find other sources of revenue other than rates and taxes to fix our government,” Mahtani said.
89-year-old Amelia McAlpin was the only community member who spoke against the proposal at the Thursday night meeting. She said she’s on a fixed income and is concerned about the rate increases.
“I’m just speaking for all the elders, all the widows and the widowers that are on a fixed income,” McAlpin said. “We don’t have a big income. I don’t know why they’re not all here to talk, but I’m not so happy about it.”
Utility users will see an average monthly increase of $5.50 for water and $4.72 for sewer services beginning in February. The rate hikes will provide the city with an additional $610,340 in revenue.
The council on Thursday also voted against an amendment that would increase the city’s sales tax rate by 0.5% April through September. That same amendment would decrease the city’s sales tax by 0.5% October through March.
Hunter Morrison is a Report for America corps member for KRBD. Your donation to match our RFA grant helps keep him writing stories like this one. Please consider making a tax-deductible contribution.
