Emergency Surcharge

[Bert Kemp]

My local water company is requesting a emergency surcharge be added to our monthly water bill to pay for repairs to the water storage tank. Why would they ask us to pay for repairs. We pay a water bill each month. I know the fee's we pay cover repairs to the system pay the help and what not and I'm sure they must have some sort of insurance for when things break down. So why should they expect us to pay extra each month to cover something that should already be covered.??

[Lee Schierer]

I think that these questions could best be answered by your local water company. Some water providers are COOP services supported by the members they serve and not by any municipality. I doubt that they have insurance for major repairs to replace aging infrastructure and not caused by an unforeseeable disaster.

[Mike Henderson]

There are a couple of ways for dealing with unforeseen problems. One is to have a reserve fund that can be drawn upon when those kind of things happen. The other is to add a surcharge to pay for the problem. Looks like your water company uses option 2.

The reason many municipal facilities don't use option 1 is that people start complaining about "all the money sitting there" doing nothing.

Mike

[Brian Henderson]

The reason many municipal facilities don't use option 1 is that people start complaining about "all the money sitting there" doing nothing.

That's why you don't have money sitting there, you use it to pay for an insurance policy that, should the need arise, will fund repairs and ongoing maintenance. Of course, a lot of utility companies simply do no maintenance whatsoever on their pipelines, such that they fail catastrophically because they've never been kept up. Los Angeles is having a major problem with this right now because the pipes date from the 1940s and have not been maintained. It is estimated that bringing them up to date will cost more than a billion dollars. Whose fault is that? Certainly not the people who have been paying their bills every month.

[Stan Calow]

There is no insurance for routine repairs and replacement. Deferred maintenance and low-bidder services is how politicians show taxpayers they're doing their jobs by keeping taxes and rates low. People vote for that. If its a municipal utility, they don't charge rates to make a profit. If the costs exceed the income, the money has to come from the owners - the customers.

[Bert Kemp]

This is a small privately owned water company. Funny I think most people here on the forum are small business some maybe big business but I'll bet most all of you set some of your income aside for repairs and break downs and I'll bet the bigger business's here have Insurance to cover major expenses. I guess in the end it really doesn't matter if we want the water to flow we'll pay the extra each month.

[Bert Kemp]

Right routine stuff should be paid for by the monthly fee's. Isn't that why we get a bill each month.

There is no insurance for routine repairs and replacement. Deferred maintenance and low-bidder services is how politicians show taxpayers they're doing their jobs by keeping taxes and rates low. People vote for that. If its a municipal utility, they don't charge rates to make a profit. If the costs exceed the income, the money has to come from the owners - the customers.

[Stan Calow]

Right routine stuff should be paid for by the monthly fee's. Isn't that why we get a bill each month.

Yep, they should have planned for it, but they didn't. So now they have an unplanned expense. They either have to borrow money to pay for it and raise rates to pay for a loan, or raise rates and pay for it now. If its a city-owned utility, they can take money from somewhere else like the fire or police department. In any case, with municipal utilities, the they is us.

You watch, once past this crisis, see if they plan for funding the reserve account for replacing all the other infrastructure. Every pipe, pump, hydrant and tank eventually needs to be replaced.

I've seen it happen many times when city governments want to save money in the short term by keeping rates low, or even use utility revenue to pay for other city projects. My city is currently planning on spending a couple of billion on sewer projects that are result of poor planning and deferred maintenance.

[Bruce Wrenn]

You ask why the surcharge? The answer is simple-Because they can! That's why I don't plan on ever giving up my well, or living some where that has home owners dues.

[Wayne Lomman]

I'm with Bruce. If you live where you have services, the trade off is you give up control of aspects of your life. That's not for me. Cheers

[Dick Latshaw]

So why should they expect us to pay extra each month to cover something that should already be covered.??

Fortunately for you, you live far enough west to avoid the clutches of Duke Energy. Duke, and their paid friends on the Florida Public (Dis)Service Commission, have us paying for one nuclear plant that, when it broke, they tried to fix and botched the job, so it is unusable, and a second plant that they never plan to build.

[roger wiegand]

The ratepayers demand the lowest possible monthly bill, not accumulating a repair fund is one way to achieve that. We go through this argument every year at town meeting. People hate the idea that any money beyond the absolute minimum required for operation is being collected. Fortunately, in our town good sense usually prevails. We have to listen to the wailing and moaning from the cheapskates every year, nonetheless.

[John A langley]

We moved into our house in May 1980 the water district had a four dollar debt service charge it is now $14 The debt was paid off along time ago we also have what they call special assessment that started out as eight dollars a month for attorneys fees they have lowered that one to four dollars a month. The water district Has about 1100 paying customers they charge $6500 for a meter They have roughly $750,000 in the bank half a dozen people at the most go to the annual meeting The only thing people care about turn the tap and get water.

[Mark Blatter]

You ask why the surcharge? The answer is simple-Because they can! That's why I don't plan on ever giving up my well, or living some where that has home owners dues.

I completely agree. Yet having said that, I had a well once that went bad a year after buying the house. We drilled a new one that was 30 feet deeper but it only lasted 18 months. We had to drill another one that went down another 34 feet. We had great water every time, but still had the expense of drilling two wells. Not cheap, but I would still rather be on my own well than on city water.

[Pat Barry]

Its a large cost - capital improvement. That isn't covered by the monthly costs set aside for routine maintenance. Its similar to where i live. We pay fees to the city for street maintenance and repair - that doesn't cover the cost for new storm sewers, streets, curbs, water piping, sidewalks, etc. All that gets billed back to the homeowner on a separate charge - costed out on a per foot basis. Lucky me lives on a corner so I get charged 2X the normal price because of double the frontage.