INC NEWS - Upcoming Issues

[RW Pickle]

Looming in the immediate future are two issues that merit attention.

First is our current water shortage and Stage IV restrictions. For those
who do not know, our water and sewer infrastructure is paid for by revenue
bonds. These are bonds sold based on revenue. The less water you use (I'd
like to say conserve, but the current system isn't modeled for
conservation), the less the revenue collected is for water and sewer and
the less that can be done in the future (or currently paid for). The
current  bonds have already been sold, so they were based on previous
revenue streams that no longer exist. Under Stage IV, this means less
money coming in from revenue to repay those bonds. And that money has to
come from somewhere. Perhaps some City/County administrator can give us
the $$$ skinny on what we're looking at for a shortfall of revenue to pay
this debt. And if this continues or gets worse, so does the revenue
stream. It dries up like Lake Mickie has... The bonds still have to be
paid for, but the anticipated revenue no longer exists.

Future repairs/projects are also in jeopardy because the revenue is just
not coming in (with water use down). And if rates go up to increase
revenue to meet this shortfall, we'll all see a sizable jump in what we
currently pay. It could be 100% increase depending on what lies ahead for
infrastructure and repairs (at a 50% reduction of water use, it'll need to
be an increase of 100% just to break even, so it could be more). These are
multi-million dollar projects, so it needs a steady flow of money. Save
water because of mandatory restrictions, pay more for using less. It's a
messed up model and it's time to start rewarding conservation and
punishing wasted resources. So what if you have 5 kids and use a lot of
water. You get a federal tax advantage that folks without kids do not get.
It's a ying/yang thing. It all works out in the end. Those who waste
it/use it, pay for it. Those who conserve are rewarded.

And while I'm on water, what about some property tax credit for those of
us who collect/use rainwater? The Governor was talking about this
recently. Why can't we move forward with this green-water-saving idea and
reward those who will help? A one-time tax credit for property owners for
having them would increase their use by a huge percentage. More credit for
more collection and use. There are currently State/Federal tax breaks for
solar. Why not a local one for water since it is becoming such an issue?

The second thing that is scheduled for 2008 is the City-wide roll-out of a
yard waste program. INC fought to make this a reality with a number of
INC'ers attending countless hours of meetings (back when Solid Waste cared
what we thought). So as time moved on, this idea found itself into the
budget stream and is scheduled to happen next year. It'll be tax based, so
no one will notice any special fees (except for a cart). Even if you don't
use the service, you'll pay for it with your taxes.

WHAT KIND OF SENSE DOES THIS CURRENTLY MAKE?

None, unless we want to pay Virginia $39.50/ton (and more if the Virginia
legislature passes a $.50-10.00/ton  tax for ALL waste for disposal coming
across its' borders) to dispose of it for us. Now that we no longer have a
yard waste facility, EVERYTHING collected goes to Virginia. And what kind
of sense does it make to increase our fees in Virginia by rolling out such
a plan now? It doesn't. It could break the bank at this point if the
customer base increased from 18,000 or so, to around 65,000 (I'm not aware
of the current subscriber or service figures). The yard waste disposal
fees alone would be more than three and a half times what they are today.
Not to mention the huge amount of carts necessary. I understand we'll be
leasing them to cut costs, but there still is a cost associated with that.
So maybe we should hold off on this roll-out until we have a better plan
in place. Isn't there a better plan being worked on? I haven't heard of
any. Even the hazardous waste disposal collection that we heard was going
to expand collection in June hasn't happened. Now you can only drop off
this toxic stuff for a very small window of time, one day a week (it was 2
days back in the summer). What kind of sense does that make? And I'd like
to see (here we go again with a tax credit...) some sort of rebate for
those of us who have supported this program (and built it; last year our
fees supported the current program). I guess with this new property
valuation that we're going through, I'm looking for our government to give
us something back... (or something better or more of either).

Just things for you to consider as we move into a new year. We pay for all
waste and inefficiency. We're the only ones who have a voice for the
changes that are needed to be made. Use yours wisely.

RWP
27 Beverly