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Politics & Government

QuickStory: Bottom Line of Water Study Is That Rates Will Go Up

The second phase of a consultant's report on Geneva water and sewer rates offers many scenarios—but all of them indicate that more revenue is needed to cover costs.

It will take more than a bottle of Tums to comfortably digest all the numbers presented Monday night in a consultant's water-rate report to the Geneva City Council.

But one conclusion is as plain as a piece of Wonder bread, no matter how you slice it: Geneva's sewer and water rates will have to go up in the very near future—likely as soon as July.

The overarching goals of the water-and-sewer-rate study presented by David Hyder and Tracey Moher of Municipal & Financial Services Group are to help stabilize Geneva's rates and create a rate structure that charges users based on the cost of providing service.

Find out what's happening in Genevawith free, real-time updates from Patch.

The City Council heard three alternative rate structures, which include combinations of fixed charges and volume charges under a variety of scenarios for residential, commercial and industrial users, but the bottom line is that Geneva needs a 13 percent revenue increase in fiscal year 2013 or a 5 percent water revenue increase and 6 percent sewer revenue increase in each of the next three fiscal years.

Those are revenue requirements. The rate hikes will vary depending on which of the three alternatives the city selects and what class or category of user you happen to fall into.

Find out what's happening in Genevawith free, real-time updates from Patch.

But let's just say you're a residential customer who uses 1,200 cubic feet of water/sewer per month. You're paying $78.14 a month right now, in fiscal year 2012. In FY 2013—assuming you're still using that same 1,200 cubic feet—you'd be paying the following for water and sewer combined:

  • Current structure: $82.32 (5.3 percent increase)
  • Alternative 1: $80.90 (3.5 percent increase)
  • Alternative 2: $83.82 (7.3 percent increase)
  • Alternative 3: $78.58 (.6 percent increase)

The good news is, you'd probably still be paying less than if you lived in Batavia or St. Charles. And the quality of water is better here.

The bad news is that example doesn't begin to tell the whole story. There are "have's" and "have nots" in every scenario.

One interesting asterisk—probably worth its own headline—is that the FY 2015 revenue percentage increases could drop if the city were to annex the Kane County Judicial Center. The FY 2015 revenue increase would drop to 2.6 percent for water and 4 percent for sewer service based on the volume of sewer and water revenue that institution would provide.

The deadline for City Council commentary on all of this is June 4. The timeline is to have a final rate recommendation prepared for discussion at the City Council Committee of the Whole meeting on June 25, with final approval at the full council meeting on July 2.

The city wants that decision so that it can implement the rate changes "effective as of that vote to capture 10 months out of this fiscal year," City Administrator Mary McKittrick said.

That's the QuickStory. Patch will follow up after the editor digests a few more Tums, and possibly several Ibuprofen.

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