Daniel Marsh: Water conservation will pay off in higher rates
Because of the success the city of Modesto has gotten in conserving water, water revenues to the city have declined. Less use means lowered revenue. Rumors are constant that with less revenues coming in the city is going to want to increase water rates to make up the deficit .
What an irony. For doing such a good job conserving water, users will be paying more for less.
Any rate increase is regressive in economic terms for low-income people. I takes more out of their available disposal income. Landlords pass such rate increases on to renters. In this county, we have long had one of the highest poverty rates in the nation.
City government must do a serious rate study and public hearings to get information out to the general public.
Like with gas and electric utilities, they have constantly wanted us to use less but increased our rates when we do. This is where conservation backfires on all of us.
Daniel Marsh, Modesto
This story was originally published July 2, 2015 at 11:46 AM with the headline "Daniel Marsh: Water conservation will pay off in higher rates."