1.12.08

Comparing rates
Omaha World-Herald editorial

The Omaha-area Metropolitan Utilities District offered an interesting comparison for users to consider when putting the agency’s rate increase this year into perspective.

The American Water Works Association reported that the median residential water bill last year was $278.

In 2007, the average residential M.U.D. customer paid $188.25 for 108,000 gallons of water. In 2008, that will rise to $225.51 for the same amount of water.

That includes the service charge and water infrastructure replacement charge of $2 per month ($24 per year) that took effect on January 2. The infrastructure charge is vital to M.U.D.’s ability to update its aging water system.

Many other communities are facing similar problems with old, often cast-iron pipes, and many are looking at rate increases in excess of M.U.D.’s. In Atlanta, for instance, the municipal utility raised its rates 10 percent this year — but the increase would have been 43 percent if voters hadn’t approved a 1-cent sales tax for water improvements.

A smaller community, Panama City and Bay County, FL, raised its rates 61 percent. In many instances, communities are looking at steep increases because they have kept prices artificially low for years, fearing customer anger, according to a recent article in USA Today.

M.U.D. and its leadership deserve credit for sound management and wise planning. The Omaha area is luckier in this respect than some other areas of the country.

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