Fulton County is not prepared to raise water and sewer rates again, at least not yet.
Despite the fact that county staff insists a 10 percent rate increase is necessary to achieve its debt service requirement, the Fulton County Board of Commissioners held off on taking any action on the item for 45 days during their Dec. 17 meeting. "I'm not ready to impose a rate increase without some kind of true strategy for capital planning," said Commissioner Lynn Riley.
The request to increase the rates once again comes only months after the rates were increased by 17 percent. However, because water usage was down by nearly 24 percent between October 2007 and October 2008 the county could be in trouble with its bond repayment.
The bond, which was taken out on the system expansion, requires that money coming in is slightly above the bond repayment amount. But because more water and sewer customers have implemented conservation in their usage and other jurisdictions have raised their water and sewer rates against the county, something must be done so that Fulton doesn't find itself having trouble repaying its debt.
County Finance Director Patrick O'Conner told said the county could receive a bad credit rating if the rate increase is not approved. In fact, he believes non-approval could impact the issuance of recently approved library bonds.
"I'm philosophically opposed to the additional rate increase, but because of language in the bond formula we might have to [increase rates]," said Commissioner Robb Pitts.
Still, until they have a much better handle on how water and sewer systems are managed, Riley won't approve an increase, she said.
"All of these issues give me great concern," said Riley.
Commissioner Emma Darnell requested a short, comprehensive analysis of the operational budget in terms of personnel, equipment and cost per unit before the item comes back before the commission in January.
Labels: Fulton, Fulton County, Increase, Rates, water
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Brian Vanderhoff @ 12:08 PM
