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12.7.05 M.U.D. will annex areas as customers move in Metropolitan Utilities District will add about three times the typical number of customers when it annexes 10,500 households and businesses as part of a change in policy that will speed the entry of new subdivisions into the district. For new home buyers, the change is significant. Homes that aren't within M.U.D.'s district boundaries pay 50 percent more for water, and the residents there can't vote for M.U.D. board members. As a result of M.U.D.'s change, annexed households will see rates drop Jan. 1, and these ratepayers will be able to vote in M.U.D.'s May primary election. The affected subdivisions include Bennington Lake and Linden Estates in Douglas County and Lakewood Villages and Tregaron in Sarpy County. In the past, M.U.D. waited until a subdivision was about 70 percent full before bringing it into the district's boundaries, said Ron Bucher, senior vice president of administration. Now the district will add customers as homes are occupied. The annexation change is part of a larger package of revisions that M.U.D. undertook with the 2006 budget, which the board unanimously approved today. M.U.D.'s budget eliminates the utility's property tax levy, which, for a house valued at $100,000, will lower taxes by about $6.90. The district is replacing the tax levy with an increase in the monthly service fee, which during the course of a year will go up by $10.20. As previously announced, the district is raising water rates by 5 percent to cover the cost of building a new water plant, meeting new federal water quality standards and funding the district's own pension needs. Overall, the cost of water is expected to increase by about 11 percent, although the net effect on bills will be lower because the property tax is being eliminated. The utility is not raising its portion of natural gas rates in an effort to ease the pain of already high wholesale prices. Like its customers, M.U.D. is feeling the pinch of high wholesale prices. The board gave the utility permission to borrow up to $30 million to buy gas and meet other expenses while it waits for revenue from customers. |
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