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Kuna Residents Upset Over Utility-Rate Increase Proposal: Sewer Rates Would Jump 31.5 Percent; Water Climbs, Too

Posted on: Monday, 10 April 2006, 09:01 CDT

By Katy Moeller, The Idaho Statesman, Boise

Apr. 10--KUNA -- Don Fox and other Kuna senior citizens say a city proposal to increase water and sewer rates may be warranted for system upkeep, but hikes being discussed now would be a shock to their budgets.

If the proposal is approved by the City Council, sewer rates would jump 31.5 percent, from $17.50 to $23 a month. The water rate structure would be totally revamped. Some residents are upset that the base water consumption permitted in the two plans would be either 3,000 or 7,000 gallons, down from the current 20,000 gallons.

"Going from 20,000 to 3,000 -- that's a rape," resident Chris Maurer told the City Council at a hearing earlier last week. "Do we have to go from one extreme to the other?"

The average single-family home in Kuna uses about 5,500 gallons of water per month, so the new rate structures would shift the cost burden to those who use the most water, city officials say.

Residents currently pay a flat fee of $15.50 for up to 20,000 gallons, with seniors paying a discounted fee of $11. Above that, each 1,000 gallons costs 65 cents.

Under the proposed rate plans, residents would either pay $14 for up to 3,000 gallons or $17 for up to 7,000 gallons, with additional charges for usage beyond that base amount.

The $4.50 per month discount Kuna seniors receive on their base water rate would be dropped under both of the proposals.

Some residents -- and the city's treasurer -- say the city's proposed water rate structure disproportionately impacts seniors, particularly those who do not have pressurized or gravity irrigation.

"My recommendation is going to be to the council that we reinstate the senior discount," Kuna Treasurer Colleen Cook said.

Fox, a retiree who has lived in Kuna since 1991, found from his own calculations that he'd be paying an additional $250 a year under the city's sewer/water rate increase proposals. It would be an unanticipated financial hit that he and others can ill afford.

"I'm going broke slowly," he told the Kuna City Council at a public hearing this past Tuesday.

Cook said that some panicked residents may have miscalculated their projected rates, leading them to believe they would be paying hundreds of dollars more each year.

"My office was full of people in and out yesterday, just looking at the rates," she said Thursday. "We showed them 2005 and ran [their bills] with new fees. They weren't upset when it was figured right."

Mayor Dean Obray asked city staff to calculate the increase for the 13 people who signed up to testify against the rate increase Tuesday.

The City Council will take up the water and sewer rate plans again at its next meeting, April 18 at Kuna City Hall, 763 W. Avalon.

"We continued the hearing so people can come out and give more input," Cook said.

The city hasn't raised its sewer and water rates in years-- possibly as long as 20 years, said Cook, who has served as city treasurer for eight years. Now Kuna has to take some kind of action because the city doesn't have money for system repair and replacement, officials said.

Customers who have irrigation service pay a flat fee of $75 for pressurized irrigation, and those with gravity irrigation pay a small annual fee on top of their domestic water bill. Those without irrigation run up their house water bills when they soak their lawns.

The new proposals aim to reduce the cost burden on those without pressurized irrigation by charging a reduced rate for water use above the bases of 3,000 gallons or 7,000 gallons.

But that still may be too burdensome for seniors, Cook said.

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Copyright (c) 2006, The Idaho Statesman, Boise

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Source: The Idaho Statesman, Boise

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