Taxpayers Call for Change in City Water Bills

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
SICTA (Sea Isle City Taxpayers Association) spends considerable time researching and publicizing issues that we believe are in the best interests of Sea Isle City. Oftentimes, we supply large quantities of data to support our points of view. Upon reflection, some things are best understood at a more personal level. We think our water and sewer rate issue is a case in point. So, we would like to give some more individualized examples of the inherent inequities in the manner in which Sea Isle levies water and sewer charges
We understand that there are certain fixed costs, such as infrastructure and maintenance that probably should be shared equally. These fixed costs represent almost two-thirds of our total water and sewer budget; the remainder is truly variable, representing charges from our County MUA for sewage treatment. In the summer season, these charges cost every participating municipality roughly $16.50 per 1000 gallons. Sea Isle’s issue is that we only collect $1.50 per 1,000 gallons for excess sewer usage by larger users, leaving the other $15 to be paid by everyone else.
But let us move to the examples. As our first example, we would like to focus on a single property occupied by two 80+ year old residents on fixed incomes that have lived in Sea Isle for many years. This is a real case and not a hypothetical. Their total water usage for the year is in the neighborhood of 24,000 gallons. For these 24,000 gallons, they are billed $1,020 per year.
Now for some contrasts. Note that this is not intended as a vendetta against bar owners, but just an example of the inequity in the system as it is now structured. Bar owners just happen to be some of our largest users. Listed below are the annual charges, along with their usage and the resulting charges per 1,000 gallons. Putting aside the issue of fixed/variable for simplicity, let’s compare what our senior citizens pay per 1,000 gallons with the bar owners who clearly are not on a fixed income.
See Figure 1.
The math is not complicated. In Sea Isle City, the 80+ year old residents pay 4 to 10 times more per gallon than the bar owners.
The current City Administration and Council either do not understand, do not perceive, or worse, do not care that the current rate structure is inequitable and unjust, especially in these trying economic times. We, as concerned citizens, do understand and do see a system that needs to be radically changed. Not only for the goal of equity, but also to promote conservation of our most important natural resource–water. If we want to become a truly “Green” community then our rate structure must be changed. Many progressive communities in the United States have tackled these issues head on and instituted rate systems that reflect fixed costs as well as the obvious variable costs that are associated with wide disparities in usage. We can look at nearby communities in Cape May County that recently updated their rates for some examples.
See Figure 2.
In case you started to compare the two charts, please be aware that charges per 1,000 gallons can vary for the number of meters or housing units that an owner possesses. Our small and large user examples assumed a single meter/unit owner, while the previous Bar Owner examples included multiple meter/unit situations. That does not alter the bigger picture. In Sea Isle City, the small user pays 10 times more per gallon than the large user, while in other communities the same users pay virtually identical charges.
We are not necessarily proposing that Sea Isle adopt a 1 to 1 rate structure. Our question is: Why can’t Sea Isle come up with a fairer system?