The currently proposed Pima County sewer rate increase responds to debt service required to meet Arizona Department of Environmental Quality regulations promulgated by U. S. Environmental Protection Agency, rising operations and maintenance costs, uptick in staff salaries, increasing energy costs, decreasing customer water usage, unpaid customer sewer fees, misclassified customer categories, and other factors which includes the 10% of administrative costs which the Wastewater Reclamation Department could not explain at the January 26, 2017 Advisory Committee meeting. The main issues are the debt service and declining revenues. Not much can significantly mitigate these issues. It’s apparent a rate and continuing rate increases are necessary. I am not a financial expert, so I have no justifiable opinion on the exact rate and schedule of the increase(s), but think it would be more palatable to spread the increase(s) over longer time periods and more equitable to review and possibly revise the low-income customer sewer subsidy.
Do the best with what you have!
Barney P. Popkin/Tucson, Arizona USA
ENV-WASH-WASTE Consultant
www.linkedin.com/in/barneypopkin
bppopkin@yahoo.com