The Poway City Council missed an opportunity to correct a flawed water rate structure. Similar to the current tariff, council’s proposal is neither fair nor equitable.
The council voted to increase fixed charges from 16% to only 20%. Staff documented that approximately 50% of water expenditures are fixed while the variable costs are due to the commodity charge. As what has happened last year, the city continues to be susceptible to having a shortfall in revenue to pay for all water-related costs as conservation effects take hold.
Fixed-cost allocation should be by the size of the meter. In ancient Rome, households could access water by boring into the aqueduct. They were charged by the bore of the pipe -- the wider the pipe, the higher the fee, called the vectigal. Funds raised by the vectigal were used to cover the costs of system construction and maintenance.
Additionally, by instituting a three-tier progressive variable rate structure with much lower rate thresholds than the previous two tier structure, the city creates a huge cross-class subsidy. Any household which uses more than the average amount of water subsidizes those households which use less. Water is a variable cost. The cost to the city is the same for the first acre-foot of water as the 1,000th acre-foot.
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Ostensibly, the concern by the City Council was that low water users can least afford the cost of the commodity and the delivery system. It is a mistake to think of low water users as being economically disadvantaged and higher use customers as wasteful. Young families with children have high demand for water as they prepare multiple meals, baths and many loads of laundry. Some homeowners who have put in artificial turf are low water users. (Not only does artificial turf increase the heat island effects of our region, but it was also subsidized by the rest of us through the Metropolitan Water District rebate program.)
The city should not be in the business of social engineering but rather providing services to its citizens fairly.
Russ is a Poway resident and a registered professional engineer.
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December 13, 2019 at 01:35AM
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Revised Poway water rate structure still flawed - The San Diego Union-Tribune
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