INC NEWS - Hidden Fees

[Melissa Rooney]

>>programs in other countries reward citizens for
using less by charging them less. And once you reach a
certain threshold, the price starts to climb rapidly.
So there is a larger incentive to conserve; not just
water (like in this case), but electricity as well.

I couldn't agree more with Randy's statement (above)
and was just discussing the same thing with a friend
this week.

I think the city should think about increasing the
cost of water beyond a certain threshold, regardless
of whether we are in a crisis situation or not.

Sincerely,
Melissa Rooney




--- RW Pickle <randy at 27beverly.com> wrote:

> With our crunch on water these days, and so much
> talk about use of it, I
> decided to look at my water bill just to see how we
> do over here. It's not
> something I usually care to look at very much since
> it seems to be within
> $20-30 every time it comes.
> 
> Over the last billing period, I used about $.50
> (fifty cents) of water a
> day which I thought was a pretty good deal. But what
> struck me as strange
> when I looked over the bill were all the other
> charges that I pay for as
> well on this billing. It seems to cost me twice as
> much to get rid of the
> water I use. Aren't we just recycling this water
> anyway? It goes to the
> treatment plant and then is discharged back into our
> rivers and lakes.
> Then we get to buy it all over again. if we started
> recycling some of this
> "gray water" like the Governor has suggested, we'll
> still be paying for
> the treatment of it (since sewage is charged at a
> rate per amount of water
> used).
> 
> And just what is all this conservation going to end
> up doing to budgets of
> departments that depend on the revenue? They are
> able to get these
> millions of dollars through bonds without much
> effort because they are
> revenue based bonds. What happens when they're not
> making the money they
> expect to repay these bonds? And where does that
> extra money come from?
> Does that mean the price of water will go up because
> we are using less
> (thereby cutting into their water resource budget)
> just to cover costs?
> Like so many other things in this country, our
> system of "use more, pay
> less" is screwed up. There is no reward for those
> who would conserve
> (except smaller bills for them). But if the price
> goes up because people
> use less, how can that be right? programs in other
> countries reward
> citizens for using less by charging them less. And
> once you reach a
> certain threshold, the price starts to climb
> rapidly. So there is a larger
> incentive to conserve; not just water (like in this
> case), but electricity
> as well.
> 
> I'd be curious to know how much water (in dollars
> per day since that's
> easy to see from the bill and requires no extra
> calculations other than
> dividing by 60 days) others use. Maybe what I use is
> a lot and I just do
> not know...
> 
> RWP
> 27 Beverly
> 
> 
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