Batavia adds gasoline tax, changes natural gas tax
Buying gasoline in Batavia will cost a penny more per gallon, starting Feb. 1.
And the city has figured out a way to tax all natural gas purchases, not just those made from Nicor.
The city council approved both measures Monday night.
Alderman Vic Dietz, chairman of the government services committee, said the gasoline tax will help erase a projected budget deficit in 2012.
“There are no tax increases that are fun for me, and this (the gasoline tax) is one of them Dietz said. “I am going along because it is a user fee for a user benefit.”
Dietz said the tax would raise $100,000, and that the money will be used for street maintenance and repairs. It starts Feb. 1.
The gasoline tax passed 11-1-1, with Alderman Alan Wolff voting against it and Alderman Garran Sparks voting “present.” Alderman Dawn Tenuta was absent.
On natural gas, the city will convert from a 4.12 percent tax on the supply and delivery of natural gas that a customer purchases from Nicor, to a 3.5 cent-per-therm charge, no matter who supplies the gas.
“For a number of us who have chosen other vendors to supply the gas, we have slipped through the cracks ... because the actual purchase was not from Nicor. We are attempting to level the playing field,” Dietz said.
City Administrator Bill McGrath said the per-therm charge also will encourage conservation and be more stable than the sales tax. Currently, the amount of municipal utility tax a customer pays varies, as the price of natural gas fluctuates.
“So we think this absolutely puts more control in the hands of the consumer,” McGrath said.
About 37 percent of the natural gas used in Batavia in 2010 came from sources other than Nicor, according to a report from Nicor, which keeps track of therms because it delivers the gas. Commercial and industrial users buy more gas from outside sources; Nicor has about 90 percent of the residential market in Batavia.
Using an actual natural gas bill for November, where the residential customer used 93 therms from Nicor and was charged $44.64 for the gas, the customer would pay $3.25 in tax to the city (93 therms x .035), compared to $1.78 ($44.64 x .0412). It will eliminate the tax on the delivery charges, which on the bill in question was 82 cents.
The changes will show up on bills starting Feb. 1.