Prices for some military-run programs and services — from child-care fees to renting a tent — will be rising starting this week, the Installation Management Agency-Europe announced Tuesday.
Beginning Wednesday, U.S. military installations throughout Europe will start to see the smaller of two coming price hikes — an adjustment to fees for Morale, Welfare and Recreation programs that aren’t hitting recently revised financial guidelines, IMA-E director Russell Hall said.
But the more sweeping of the fee increases won’t arrive at European installations until Sept. 1, when prices for all Child and Youth Services programs will rise to meet minimums set by the Department of the Army, IMA-E officials said.
Cost increases for CYS programs will run the gamut from 3 percent to 11 percent in monthly child-care fees, to a 125 percent hike in one category of before- and after-school services, according to figures released Friday by IMA-E. Categories are determined by family income.
“In almost all the cases I raised, I went to the bare minimum,” Hall said, referring to the mandatory price range set for youth services by the DOA each year.
“We have made a conscious effort in raising the prices to try not to go to the top end [of that range].”
Last year, to defray families’ expenses while many members of the 1st Infantry Division and 1st Armored Division were deployed to Iraq, IMA-E was granted a pass on keeping pace with rising CYS costs.
But that means this year the agency has had to catch up on two years’ worth of fee inflations, leading to large-percentage price jumps in school-age services and sports team membership fees.
For example, in the middle-income categories ($34,000 to $44,000 in family income), monthly prices for the before- and after-school child-care program will go up by more than 25 percent, from $142 to $184.
Monthly price increases for all-day child care in every income category, however, will be more moderate, with no sector going up more than the 11 percent rise for those in the $34,000-$44,000 bracket — an increase from the current $286 fee to $318.
Charges for sports and fitness team enrollment will generally go up $10 for each child, according to IMA-E’s numbers, a rise of between 16 percent and 30 percent in most cases.
But while CYS fees in Europe are slated to take effect everywhere on the same day this fall, the MWR price increases will roll out in a much more piecemeal fashion, IMA-E officials said.
Everything from arts and crafts programs to party tent rentals could see cost adjustments, depending on the fiscal health of each base’s programs, and no uniform fee increases will take place throughout Europe, IMA-E spokeswoman Kim Walz said.
“Business operations for food and beverage services is the only program which may need pricing adjustments in multiple locations,” Mike Cain, the MWR division chief for IMA-E, wrote in an e-mail to Stars and Stripes.
“There are some communities in which other programs have been identified as requiring pricing adjustments, [including] bowling, golf, auto skills, amusement centers, outdoor recreation, crafts and pools. However, this is not in all communities.”
Many bases will avoid MWR cost increases entirely, Cain said.
The 233rd Base Support Battalion in Darmstadt, Germany, for example, isn’t scheduled for any increases, according to deputy MWR director Bob Vogt. Other posts in the 26th Area Support Group, however, may see increases in the cost of Coca-Cola products and German beers at some outlets, said ASG business manager Stacye Downing.
According to an IMA chart summarizing price increases, the 22nd ASG, based in Vicenza, Italy, is not increasing any prices or fees. It is the only ASG with no increases.
The rate increases were prompted by a spring IMA-E initiative to ensure MWR programs are keeping up with rising expenses, Hall said.
“Department of Army program standards require that MWR programs and services must break even; some must make a profit to continually reinvest in and improve quality-of-life MWR programs, services and facilities,” according to a news release from the agency.
The announcement of both the MWR and CYS cost increases was timed to allow military community members to include the hikes in the cost of living allowance survey in distribution this month, Hall said. Claiming the higher costs in the survey, which ends June 17, will potentially allow community members to recoup some of the new expenses through a COLA adjusted to reflect higher prices, he said.
For details on coming cost increases at specific communities, people should contact local MWR representatives, Walz said.
