With aging pipes and stricter environmental rules, the bill is coming due for decades of neglect of the city of Sacramento's water and sewer system. To its credit, the Utilities Rate Advisory Commission is trying to ease the pain for homeowners and businesses.
The panel of seven citizens appointed by the mayor has refused to rubber-stamp the city Utilities Department's plan to raise water and sewer rates each year for the next three years.
Instead, the advisory commission is headed toward voting this evening for a revised proposal calling for more affordability and accountability. The City Council ought to carefully consider the recommendation when it takes up the debate, starting either Feb. 21 or Feb. 28.
Under the department's plan, water rates would increase 10 percent on July 1 and another 10 percent in each of the following two years, while wastewater rates would go up 16 percent starting July 1, another 15 percent the next year and 14 percent the year after that.
At the end of the three years, the combined water-sewer bill for the average single-family residential customer would jump from $49 a month now to $68 – or an additional $229 a year.
That's tough to swallow for many families. They're also staring at rate increases by the Sacramento Regional County Sanitation District that will raise the average bill from $22 to $26 a month by 2013. Rates could triple over the next decade.
Advisory commission Chairman Steven Archibald has proposed attaching some important conditions to the city utility increases.
On affordability, he and other commissioners say the city ought to help poor families pay the higher bills. To pay for such a program, they suggest earmarking the revenue generated from the city's 11 percent utility tax on the rate increases. That windfall for the city's general fund – which pays for police, parks and other basic services – is projected to total about $3.6 million over the three years.
On accountability, the commission says the council should publicly guarantee that every dollar from the rate hikes will go toward the construction projects and should audit the spending to make sure that happens.
Interim Utilities Director Dave Brent says he's fine with the conditions. He much prefers them to the other option on the table – increasing rates for only one year and delaying major construction.
The department wants the three-year hike so it can borrow money to dramatically speed up projects. Over the next three years, it plans $256 million in work, including $152 million to upgrade the water treatment plant on the Sacramento River. Most of the plant is nearly 80 years old and while there's no immediate public health or water supply danger, the risk of a failure increases every year, Brent says.
Other work can't wait much longer, either. But that urgency has to be balanced against the fragile finances of many local households and businesses.
The three-year plan is only the beginning. The department has a $2 billion-plus blueprint over the next 30 years, requiring further rate increases.
To deserve public support, it is essential to get this first series of rate hikes and construction projects right.
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