LAWTON – Lawton residents will pay 15% more in fees for city services, including water and sewer service, in the coming fiscal year.
The Lawton City Council recently approved the city’s proposed budget for fiscal year 2022-23, which calls for a 15% increase in utility rates and fees for all city services. The council will consider the city’s proposed fee schedule on June 14.
Councilman Kelly Harris wondered what would happen if the council rejected the proposed increase.
“If we come back and we don’t approve 15 percent – say, on the utilities – what effect would that have on the budget?” he said.
City Manager Michael Cleghorn said in that case, city officials would have to re-examine every part of the budget.
“Everything that we’ve talked about would then have to be re-evaluated – everything from our fund balance to some of our categorical spending areas,” he said.
Lawton’s finance department has predicted that the city will take in about $198.52 million in revenue for the coming fiscal year, and overall expenditures will total approximately $222.53 million, according to City Hall. The revenue prediction was based on a 4% increase in sales tax use and a 15% increase in utility rates and service fees.
Major expenditures in the new budget include:
- City employees will be eligible for either a one-step increase on the pay scale or a 3% increase in base pay when they receive their annual evaluation.
- A 1% increase in controllable operating expenses. This category includes expenditures that staff controls directly, such as tools and supplies.
- A $5.99 million expenditure for improvements to city-owned vehicles, known as rolling stock.
- A $3.57 million expenditure for other improvements.
- A $60.47 million expenditure for improvements financed with general obligation bonds, ad valorem taxes and 2019 PROPEL sales taxes.
City officials originally proposed a 15% rate increase for water, sewer and trash collection service, saying the higher rates would generate enough revenue to cover the cost of providing those services and put $7.8 million in the city’s reserve funds. However, the council has indicated that it would rather see a 15% fee increase for all city services.
The prospect of raising fees to balance the books drew mixed reactions from council members.
Raising utility fees will affect Lawton’s low-income residents, said Ward 5 Councilman Allan Hampton.
“It is no doubt that we’re in constraints, and it is no doubt that the revenue that we produce in our city surely does need to balance that out,” he said. “But I’ve been wrestling pretty heavily with the constituents, like I said, in our ward. I just inherited another part of the city at redistricting, and that part of the city has some financially challenged families there also.”
Councilwoman Onreka Johnson, who represents Ward 7, said some of her constituents felt the same way.
“Although I understand that we have to, at some point, do a significant increase because we haven’t done it in the past, that does not take away from the fact there’s a lot of residents that have expressed to me the hardship that this will bring upon them,” she said.
Councilwoman Linda Chapman said a series of budget workshops showed her how much the city charges for various services and the cost of providing those services.
“We cannot keep doing business that way,” she said. “No one likes to have their utility bill raised. But at this point, with the way the country is, and the city and the state is, there’s very little choice.”