Should city councils use utility bills to pay for unrelated expenses?

Municipal utility bills are a fact of life. But increasingly, some cities and towns in Oregon are adding fees to them for unrelated services. This has left some residents contending that it amounts to taxation without representation.

Residents are angry enough in Aumsville, for instance, that a recall petition has been launched to remove three city councilors from office for approving a $12 monthly utility-bill fee. Added to residents' water bills, the fee would raise money to pay for one new police officer.

Residents claim they didn't get a say on the new charge. City officials say widespread public demand and support for round-the-clock police coverage led the council to add the new charge without asking the community toweigh in.

Since Aumsville can put a lien on a resident's home if they fail to pay the new fee, some  in the 1-square-mile-plus city of fewer than 4,000 residents are upset.

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City councils adding fees to utility bills is not new. No public vote is required to increase a water or sewer bill, so city officials add fees to avoid budget cuts or add services that are not budgeted.

Not all the efforts have been successful.

Last fall, Redmond, on the eastern side of the Cascade Range, contemplated adding a $6 per month charge to its residents' monthly utility bills to pay for more police officers.

Most residents supported adding officers, but not at a personal cost of $72 more per year tacked onto their utility bills.

Redmond City Recorder Trish Pinkerton said the idea was abandoned, and a new property-tax increase is instead being considered.

In Brookings, on the Oregon Coast, the city council last year toyed with the idea of adding a stormwater fee to residents' water bills to pay for infrastructure repairs.

But the hue and outcry from the community was large and loud enough that the city abandoned the idea and came up with a fuels tax system replacement fee instead.

Brookings City Manager Gary Milliman said the community just passed the fuel tax, which is collected at the pump. This means visitors who gas up in the community also contribute to replacing Brooking's aging stormwater systems. Residents supported the measure by 82 percent, Milliman said.

Cities have to have the ability to charge and collect fees. How else could cities charge for services such as airport use, street vendor licenses, franchise fees for cable TV, telephone, electric company, and garbage fees if they didn't?

Salem is no exception. The city council needs the authority to set bail amounts and collect for parking violations among dozens of other services it provides.

But utility bills should collect only for actual consumption. They should not become Christmas trees strung with lights for every line item a city envisions.

If a community like Aumsville says it needs another police officer, let the community vote to increase its taxes or find another way to pay for it.

Fees that are in essence de facto taxes shouldn't show up on a utility bill.