SSP Council Reduces Proposed Fee

The South St. Paul City Council heard the second reading of the recommended gas and electric franchise fee increase on April 6th.  Chairman Kelton Glewwe and Board members Bruce Bairaktaris, Steve Doody, Karen Hanson and Tom Leonard attended the meeting to represent the concerns of the business community in light of the proposed increase from 3% to 4.25 % for 2015 and automatic increase to 5% for 2016. 

After hearing from Chairman Glewwe, Mayor Baumann proposed to drop the recommended fee to 4% in 2015 and revisit the budget to either use the capital improvement fund to bridge their budget gap or find ways to cut spending to meet the 2015 budget.  Councilmembers Seaberg, Flatley, Hansen and Neiderkorn also agreed that the process used to come up with the recommended rates wasn't ideal and should have been done differently so they supported Mayor Baumann's recommendation to lower the rate for 2015 to 4% and not to adopt the 2016 rate but rather go back to the budget and dig deeper for alternative solutions to save costs or raise revenue. 

We appreciate the council's consideration in listening to the business voices and their recommendation to include the business community in their future budgeting sessions.  Although an increase in the fee is a cost to local businesses, we see it as a victory that the fee amount was reduced and that they did not adopt an automatic increase for 2016. 

It is important to recognize the council's compromise and those that supported it.  If you feel inclined to send a note or call Mayor Baumann, or Councilmembers Flately, Seaberg, Neiderkorn or Hansen to thank them, I will include a link to their emails below.

It is also important to let Councilmembers Rothecker and Podgorski know we do not support their spending habits and anti-business positions in South St. Paul.  "Somebody's got to pay it" is not a valid reason to increase fees without transparency and a due process. 

A special thank you to our Board member Jake Sedlacek of Excel Energy for working with both the city and the business community to provide accurate and important information to use as a basis for the discussion.