STONE HARBOR – In his monthly report to the Borough Council, Ken Biddick, chair of the council committee on utilities, clarified the upcoming changes to the borough billing structure for water and sewer ratepayers.

Biddick said there will be three components to the bill residents will receive in the new year. These are debt service across the utility, sewer fees to cover the cost imposed by the county Municipal Utilities Authority, and operational spending, which is the proportionate distribution of the cost of operating the utility, including staff.

To summarize the goal of the billing system, Biddick said everyone will pay an equal share for the cost of infrastructure – what is in the ground – and a variable share for actual metered usage. Debt service will be factored as an equal amount for all users, while the proportion of the MUA costs a user will pay will be based on water use, the assumption being that water that comes in will go out through the sewer system unless there is a separate meter for irrigation use.

To reduce the amount of debt that the water/sewer utility takes on for repairs and replacement of infrastructure, the bills will also include a component that will direct revenue to a reserve for future capital expenditures. As Biddick described it, some future capital projects will “just be paid for from the reserves” rather than bonded for in ways that create new debt.

In 2025 the borough added a $125-per-quarter fee to the water/sewer bills for three quarters, in part to cover expenses transferred from the general fund to the utility. It was a move to recognize that general fund resources are used by the utility and should represent an indirect expense.

It was also a move to relieve the general fund budget of these expenses at a time when the borough was badly in need of strategies to lower general fund appropriations below the state-mandated spending cap. The $125 charge will remain in 2026 for all four quarters, according to the borough’s auditor, Michael Garcia.

Contact the reporter, Vince Conti, at vconti@cmcherald.com.