BELL : City Decides Against Utility Tax Extension

Taxpayers will get a little relief starting this month when fees added last year to gas, electricity and other utility bills decrease by 2%.

City officials had discussed extending for another year a 10% utility users tax imposed last October to help steady the city’s financial state. Dates for two public hearings to discuss the possibility of extending the tax had been set.

Instead, City Council members decided to let their original plan to repeal the fee stand. The plan calls for the fee to be reduced to 8% as of Oct. 1, with a further reduction to 5% next year. By October, 1995, the tax should be eliminated, said City Administrator Robert Rizzo.

“The council made a commitment to the public and found that to be more important than the $300,000 the extra tax would have raised,” Rizzo said. “They wanted to live by their word.”

The tax raised $2 million last year and will raise about $4.5 million over a three-year period, Rizzo said. The tax decrease should save residents about 72 cents each month.