STR rescinds rate hike request

unedited 3/09 Tahoe Mt. News

By Kathryn Reed

Throw away those hateful letters about rate increases – South Tahoe Refuse will pick them up for the same rate.
Five days before the scheduled March 3 public hearing about a potential 7.01 percent rate hike was to be heard before the South Lake Tahoe City Council, the garbage company threw in the towel. It has deferred any rate hike within the city limits for the time being.
The council was eager to accept this idea without scheduling a date for a future hearing on a possible rate hike.
Since the rate hike proposal came to light, public sentiment has been negative. Nor was the council thrilled with the prospect of voting on the matter since it approved a 4.33 percent hike in October.
Although the reasons for that hike and the one on recent agendas are different, the bottom line is rate payers would have been writing a check for more money.
STR’s first response was to cut the rate hike to 4.92 percent, which would have equated to $1.07 a month increase for residential customers.
Although no STR official spoke at this month’s council meeting, the sentiment brought forth by city staff was that the refuse company decided now is not the time to ask ratepayers to dole out more cash.
STR provided the city with a slew of documents, some of which show the company has reduced its pension compensation by 70 percent and cut its workforce by 8 percent. The city staff report from the March 3 meeting and STR documents are at http://slt.granicus.com/MetaViewer.php?view_id=2&clip_id=282&meta_id=25533.