By a 3-2 vote on February 23, 2010, the Orange City Council voted to increase some fees to cover the time and charges of city staff. Mayor Carolyn Cavecche was joined by Councilmembers Tita Smith and Mark Murphy in voting to keep the City's expenditures balanced with revenues while Councilmembers Jon Dumitru and Denis Bilodeau voted to let the City lose money.
The fees and master charges were last updated in 2008. The proposed changes include 652 fees:
- 531 fees stay the same (81.4%)
- 94 fees are increased (14.4%)
- 3 fees stay the same
- 24 new fees are added
City staff also added categories for resident commercial and non-resident commercial park rentals. In recent years, there has been growth in for-profit sports teams which use public parks. It is in the best interests of fiscal responsibility to the taxpayers of Orange to create separate fee schedules for non-profit uses like youth sports and for profit adult sports leagues.
Mayor Cavecche and Councilmember Tita Smith pointed out that the fee increases don't meet the costs of providing some of the services. Some business services are still being subsidized by the taxpayers of the Orange. Councilmember Mark Murphy summed the issue up best when he described these changes in fees not as increases but as passing along the costs of services. Many of the changes to parking fines are passing along increases which have been approved by the state.
Mayor Carolyn Cavecche and Councilmembers Tita Smith and Mark Murphy stood up for fiscal responsibility by allowing the City to collect enough revenue to cover costs so taxpayers won't need to subsidize these services.
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