The Kent City Council continues to surprise me with their incompetence.
A Feb. 26 Kent Reporter article (“City faces high repair cost for sewer, water system”) discussed that $6 million in annual sewer and water revenue is siphoned off to the general fund. In the article, members of the council shared great ” …concerns about raising rates because the city uses an internal utility tax on the sewer and water funds to transfer money to the general fund to pay for a variety of programs and services.”
City Councilwoman Dana Ralph was quoted in the article saying, “It’s really hard for me to say to water and sewer customers we need to raise your rates to pay for infrastructure when we are not spending a very large portion of what they are currently paying to pay for infrastructure.”
So the solution should have been easy. The $6 million in annual funds that are being inappropriately funneled into the general fund should be retained for the original purpose, sewer and water department purposes.
But this is Kent, and what does the council and all of its wisdom do when funds are misused? Rather than do the right thing, all seven of them unanimously agreed to raise taxes on the hard-working citizens of Kent.
Not only that, but the council took it a step further and pre-approved annual rate increases. In an Aug. 26 Kent Reporter article in the Reporter (“City Council approves water, sewer rate hikes”), Councilman Dennis Higgins said it makes sense to annually raise water and sewer rates.
The world Mr. Higgins lives in is a utopia that only exists in children’s books. It also makes sense that we should all get an annual pay raise, but how many of us actually do in reality?
So the 5.6 percent and 8 percent first-year increases to our water and sewer bill will go along nicely with the 14.6 percent recent tax increase to our garbage bill and the 5.5 percent increase in our city property tax assessment. Let’s not forget the 6 percent tax added to our cable bill a few years ago.
Council members, it seems you need to be reminded of what you pledge to do: Elected by the citizens of Kent, members of the council are dedicated to protecting the interests of their constituents. Please let us know when you plan to stop mismanaging taxpayer funds and start protecting our interests.
– J. Edward
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