Killeen: Council approves street maintenance fee

A controversial fee has been approved by city council members in Killeen.

With a four to three vote, the street maintenance fee was given the green light.

The fee is designed to help improve streets across the city.

With the fee, a single family will see their water bill increase by nearly $2. For businesses, the fee gets tricky because they are given a rate based on square footage. A large business could see a fee up to $300 based on calculations.

The fee, Mayor Jose Segarra said, is needed.

"Our budget item for the street maintenance just gets smaller and smaller. So, I'm glad to see after tonight, that will start increasing and citizens will be happy and say 'our streets are going to be improved with what just happened,'" he said.

There was also opposition to the fee from residents and some city council members.

John Miller said he felt city leaders should have let voters decide at the ballot.

"It's like you have a child, giving them an allowance and they decided to take that allowance and spend it however they want to spend it and they ran out of money," Miller said. "OK, instead of coming back to the parent to get more money, they decided to go inside the parents wallet without asking."

The fee is expected to be implemented by July.