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Monday, April 03, 2017

Worcester County proposes water, sewer bill rate hikes in new budget

Worcester County eliminated a program about two weeks ago that allowed EDU purchases to be financed, because the financing along with slow EDU sales were putting strain on the wastewater treatment plants’ bottom lines and forcing rate hikes.

At this past Tuesday’s budget review session, it was revealed which customers would be affected, and how much more the service would cost if the commissioners don’t make changes.

The Water and Wastewater Department is classified as an enterprise fund, in that the rates paid by customers are supposed to cover the cost of operations. How much or how little the truth of that is can’t be known until the budget is adopted.

The county operates 11 water and wastewater service areas throughout the area, though not all wastewater treatment plants in Worcester are operated by the county.

“The service areas are subject to the same pricing fluctuations and market conditions as consumers and are generally sensitive to fluctuations in items such as electricity, telecommunications and petroleum,” Jessica Wilson, enterprise fund controller, said.

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1 comment:

bayman said...

They use our tax dollars to build it and then charge us to use it. I would rather use my water pump. At least the water is free but not the electric. And the water does not stink of chlorine.