CEDAR RAPIDS - Owners of dogs and cats here are a step closer to being required to license their pets each year.

The City Council Tuesday night voted 5-3 to institute the licensing requirement, though some in the council majority want a couple of minor items changed in the proposed ordinance as it is now written.

For instance, council members seem to favor making licenses free to the disabled as the proposed ordinance would for those 65 and older.

The council must approve the measure two more times.

Ten people spoke against licenses and three spoke in favor at last night’s council meeting.

Council member Kris Gulick made the case for the majority when he argued that license fees, at least initially, would cover only about 10 percent of the city’s $658,000 annual Animal Care and Control operation’s budget. Gulick called the $60,000 expected to come in at the start via license fees a “reasonable” expense for pet owners to help the city cover its animal control costs.

Diane Webber, the city’s Animal Care and Control manager, pointed out to the council that it first took up the issue of a license requirement in 1997, put the matter on hold and then directed her at budget meetings last December to put together a licensing program to raise money from fees to offset what otherwise would be required from property taxes.

Webber said she had no plan to use money from license fees to hire a compliance officer to go door to door trying to identify unlicensed pet owners.

Council member Chuck Wieneke identified himself as a “responsible” pet owner, and he noted that the city is in the process of building a new animal shelter and by most accounts needs more shelter staff.

“I feel as an animal owner that I have responsibility to put in some dollars,” Wieneke said.

Council member Tom Podzimek, who voted against licensing, said the amount of money the licenses would bring in wasn’t worth the trouble. He said the city would be better off supporting a low-cost neutering operation and selling pet identification tags.

Webber noted that her current budget does not have funds for a neutering program. She also suggested that the license fees could bring in more than $60,000 a year once the program is in place for a time. The $60,000 figure was a three-year-old estimated, she said.

Podzimek, Mayor Ron Corbett and council member Monica Vernon voted against licensing. Gulick, Wieneke and council members Don Karr, Justin Shields and Chuck Swore voted for it.

Under the new ordinance, owners of dogs and cats that have been spayed or neutered will pay a $10 annual fee while those whose dogs and cats have not been altered will pay a $35 annual fee.

More than 20 other cities in Iowa require owners to license pets, including Iowa City, Coralville and North Liberty.