Last modified: Monday, November 19, 2007 10:16 AM PST Crews labor on a sewer project in Ontario in this late October photo. The Ontario Public Works Committee made a recommendation Friday that the City Council keep utility capitalization fees. The decision may mean that city ratepayers will pay for water and sewer projects for residential growth but also for ventures tied to commercial and industrial growth as well. Footing the bill? By William Lundquist Argus Observer Ontario — Ontario ratepayers hoping for a 17 percent reduction on their water bills will have to wait at least another 20 years, if the City Council adopts a recommendation from its public works committee. Committee members voted unanimously Friday morning to recommend the city’s utility capitalization fee (UCF) not be eliminated or reduced, even when system development charges (SDCs) are finally levied on new construction. The committee, Chairman Riley Hill said, believes the UCF brings in enough revenue, $440,000 a year, he said, to cover the more than $3 million in water and sewer projects necessitated by growth for the next 20 years. That would mean current ratepayers will not only pay for water and sewer projects for residential growth, but for projects mandated by commercial and industrial growth too. Other committee members said there had been some discussion in the past about reducing or eliminating the UCF. “We have that pot of gold there,” Riley said, “And the community is used to what it is.” Ontario City Councilman Dan Cummings said, “You’re telling the citizens they’re paying for 100 percent of growth in sewer and water through their rates. Previous councils said they wanted to reduce the UCF and have SDCs pay for growth.” Hill replied that he has to pay taxes for schools when he does not have any children in the schools. “The citizens of Ontario can pay their fair share so their children and grandchildren can have growth in jobs,” he said. He added that the UCF is actually an SDC. “In the long run,” Cummings agreed. Committee members voted unanimously to recommend the city use the UCF to pay for potential water and sewer growth in Ontario, including residential, commercial and industrial. If adopted by the City Council, that recommendation would lower the SDCs charged to developers building new houses, but Hill estimated an SDC of $4,852 per new house would still be necessary to pay for an estimated $8.3 million in transportation capital improvement projects during the next 20 years. He said he based his estimate on an EcoNorthwest study that said Ontario’s current population of 11,400 would grow to 15,692 in 20 years. Cummings said the surrounding towns may be growing faster than Ontario, but because their residents trade here, the city still has to build new infrastructure to keep pace.  Hill said he wanted to see the $4,852 per house figure lowered with commercial and industrial SDCs chipping in their share, but wanted to keep industrial SDCs low enough to keep Ontario competitive with other Treasure Valley communities in attracting big industrial employers. He said Oregon’s minimum wage law already makes this side of the border less attractive to major industrial employers. “I’ve seen other communities giving away the farm,” Hill said. He said Ontario lost a cheese factory to Boardman, which was willing to give much more in incentives.  “Industrial businesses create more jobs and revenue in the community. We have to devise a system to assist us in drawing those kinds of businesses here,” committee member Tom Frazier said. Hill also said he wanted the city to keep collecting transportation fees from businesses. Ontario Mayor Joe Dominick said the city is still collecting the fees, but the council thought they would be replaced by SDCs at some point. “This committee could recommend we replace the fees,” Dominick said. “You wouldn’t want to hit them with a double fee.” Hill said the fee would be necessary to fill the gap between what is needed to pay for transportation projects and what can be generated with SDCs. He said the next step the committee needs to take is getting estimates of commercial and industrial growth in Ontario during the next 20 years. Frazier volunteered to meet with Malheur County Economic Development Director Jim Jensen and others to get that information. Frazier said he also wanted to find out whether the City Council wanted to encourage or discourage growth. “Obviously we want to encourage growth,” said Dominick, “But the fees have to be fair, not only to businesses, but to citizens.” As far as attracting large companies, Cummings said, the question is whether to set industrial SDCs low universally, or to let the City Council grant waivers in individual cases. Frazier said companies send people out anonymously to gather information from city halls. If the SDCs were too high, he said, a company could cross Ontario off the list and the city would never be aware of the interest. “If there is a median range out there (for SDCs),” he said, “We have to be slightly under it.” Committee member Scott Wilson agreed. “We don’t know who’s looking. We don’t want to scare them off, but we don’t want to give away the farm.”