Thursday, March 25, 2010

ALTERNATIVE TO THE ALTERNATIVES

I have been reading all of the information from blogs to the Tribune and everything I can find about the sewer rate increases and all of the "Alternative" plans. Instead of trying to weigh the pros and cons of each, I have decided to come up with one myself.

  • Take out the loan offered by SRL for the 7.4 million dollars.
  • Slash the annual budget by 1 million.
  • Collect all outstanding sewer bills, no exceptions.
  • Remove the 5-2 ratio and have individuals and developers pay the same rate.
  • Do not lower the rate per unit on high volume customers.
  • Remove the minimum of $10.08 and charge everyone according to usage.
  • Use TIF funds when ever possible to pay for equipment.
  • Charge impact fees and collect all other fees from developers where applicable.
  • After all of these steps have been taken, raise the sewer rate to cover the costs.
I did not list a particular rate increase percentage because I don't know if it would be 10%, 20% or whatever. I tried to find the most reasonable aspects from each plan and combine them into one. Now, before you start the barrage of comments, I admit that I am not a CPA, and really do not know much about all of this but this is what I came up with.

I yield the floor to my learned friends.