Battle looming over pet license fees
Remember last year when the City of Peoria and the County of Peoria seemed about on the verge of war over which governmental body was responsible for holding prisoners until they make their first appearance before a judge? It was the most public of many disputes the city and county seem to have over jurisdictions and financial responsibilities.
This latest dispute will be over the fees paid by county residents to register and vaccinate their pets. State law makes counties responsible for “rabies and registration” and with investigating reports of animals biting humans. Many years ago, the city agreed to assume these functions through the entire county, provided the city gets to keep all the rabies registration fees, which usually generates a little more than $300,000 a year.
The trouble is that the rabies control program alone costs $328,000. And the department’s entire budget for all programs — including stray animal impoundments, sick/injured animal rescue. ordinance enforcement, cruelty/neglect investigation, shelter operation and pet redemption by owners — totals about $773,000. Remember, this is a city-run department that provides services for the entire county — and people from neighboring counties will drop off animals at the shelter. They take the animals, because they would just end up dumped in the nearby park of left tied to the shelter’s fence, says Animal Shelter Director Lauren Malmberg.
So why not just raise the rabies registration fees to cover the costs of running the shelter?
First, state statute gives only counties the power to set the fees. Malmberg last year asked the county to raise the fees for cats and dogs from $6 and $17 to $10 and $20. The committee to whom Malmberg made the request tabled it and it hasn’t been brought back up. That lack of a decision has forced city residents to pick up an increasingly larger percentage of the share of running a program that serves the entire county.
Second, even if the county eventually agrees to raise the rabies registration fee, it won’t rise enough to cover the entire cost of the program. City Manager Randy Oliver said that any fee large enough to do that would be so high, it would discourage rabies vaccination, which is the last thing they want to see happen.
And some members of the council — especially at-large council member Gary Sandberg and Fifth District Council member Pat Nichting — want the county to pick up a bigger share then simply passing along the rabies registration fee.
So the board council decided by consensus Tuesday to contact the Peoria County Board to ask them to consider raising the fee. The trouble is, all the Peoria County Board members are elected, too. And they probably don’t want to raise fees and annoy voters. Besides, they probably won’t believe any suggestion from the city that it might stop running the rabies registration program because I have to imagine the problem of stray dogs is potentially a bigger problem in the city than in rural parts of the county.
Two-thirds of Peoria County residents live in the city. These residents have come to expect services from city government, even though services that state law says must be provided by county governments. Two thirds of Peoria County Board members represent districts almost entirely within city limits. But it’s easier for these guys to take a pass on the responsibility of running the things they are responsible for running. After the meeting, I heard an anecdote about a County Board member who receives maybe two emails a month from constituents. I imagine even at-large council members get that many emails an hour. In a political environment like this, why should a County Board members elected to represent a district bother to struggle to get services to his or her constituents, when it’s easy to go along, get along and campaign on the issue of keeping taxes and fees low? Answer they won’t. Unless the public gets wise.
The end result is a Peoria County Board that operates as if it should serve ONLY those areas outside city limits, even though two-thirds of the county by population is the City of Peoria. They do it because voters let them.
As you all know, I live outside the city limits of Peoria. So I’d like to thank all you suckers inside the City of Peoria for paying to keep the strays off my yard.
Billy Dennis is a former reporter and editor at small daily and weekly newspapers in Illinois and Missouri. He comments on media, news and politics. He also owns and operates 
How much do we pay the staff at our shelter? How much do other counties around us pay the staff at their shelters. Given that this is a city of peoria government run office I would pull the books on PAW and follow the money, do we have city vehicles in use, are we taking trips to animal control conventions, are their consulting fees being spent?
“raise the fees for cats and dogs from $6 and $17 to $10 and $20.”
“Besides, they probably won’t believe any suggestion from the city that it might stop running the rabies registration program because I have to imagine the problem of stray dogs is potentially a bigger problem in the city than in rural parts of the county.”
In North Carolina, the rabies tag fees (which served as a license fee as well) were $10 for neutered/spayed cats and dogs and SEVENTY-FIVE DOLLARS for unneutered cats and dogs, and you had to have a vet in the county certify the neutering.
I was shocked when we moved here and rates were so low for unfixed animals. (The fine for failure to keep rabies tags up to date in Peoria is only $50!)
Why not raise the rates to something more sane for unneutered/unspayed animals? They are the pets that contribute the most to the overpopulation problem the shelters have to deal with. Irresponsible owners are also much less likely to spay or neuter. Responsible breeders already make $300/puppy for NOT-trendy breeds; $75 to keep the bitch licensed and unfixed is hardly a monetary hardship. Irresponsible breeders need to be put out of business anyway.
That way, the majority of responsible pet owners in Peoria County with spayed and neutered pets can continue paying low rates, while irresponsible owners who contribute the most to the County shelter’s burden can pay proportionally more of the cost. The small portion of responsible owners who keep their pets intact for various reasons can make a cost-benefit analysis. $75 is still not a lot of cash compared to the overall cost of keeping a pet.
We paid only $12 to get both cats’ tags. In North Carolina it was $20 and that was the generously low rate for fixed cats.
Adoption fees at PAWS are also relatively low; we paid $95 in Wake County, NC, for Orange Cat at the shelter. (Grey Cat was free because he was too ugly for any shelter to take him.) Dogs were around $120, I think. Cats are $50 at PAWS; Dogs are $75.
I’m caught in your spam filter because I used the technical term for an intact female dog!
Glad to be of service to ya Bill.
Pack Walker costs a pretty penny every year for shots.
$20 for someone to own a poorly trained dog whom the owner never picks up after. Boo hoo hoo.
Shut the animal control place down for a week or a month and forward all the calls to the elected county officials whom the state says are responsible.
How about a “yip dog” carry license fee for all the morons that have popped up in the last year with these little rat dogs that they think they can take everywhere with them. Charge these useless t*rds 3-400 bucks a year for the priviledge of dragging their furry little rodents into every store and office they visit. How is it appropriate for some trendy little wench to bring a puppy in a purse shopping, would you let a brother from the hood carry his pit bull around Grand Prarie mall. Make these people pay!!
Maybe the shelter could coordinate neutering services for the guy referenced in Pam Adams column? Charge $250 to stop his ability to father children, the City makes a few bucks, and society saves thousands.
There is only one way to deal with that kind of monster. A mob of villagers must seek out his lair in the light of day, drag him out and pound a stake through his p*n*s .
Raoul – Read the local news in Jamaica some time. They regularly have machete-wielding mobs solving crimes, usually rape, in a most democratic manner. It is unfortunate, however, when someone is wrongly acccused, or misidentified. No appeals process.
Not to say that I don’t condemn this solution for child molesters….