So on one day the City of Sioux Falls ‘Gifteft’ a nice cop mustache calendar then the next day they ‘taketh’ with the water rates. No wonder they couldn’t print a brochure with all the important numbers on it and insert it in the water bill – there was no room.
I have to admit I knew about the water rate increase, but it still bothers me we are paying for a pipeline that won’t be here for another 2-3 years, if ever. I don’t think we should have paid L & C one single penny until the water was flowing. If the pipeline is going to be so successful, as they promise, then the banks can loan them the money to build it and they can pay the interest instead of us. You don’t pre-pay for electricity or natural gas so why would we prepay for water?
Dumb.
I guess your showing the new water rates does not mean a whole lot to me since I don’t know what the old rates were. (I don’t live in the city) So I don’t have an old rate to compare it with. As a percentage, about how much did the rate go up?
I’m not sure. I guess I’ll have to wait until I get my bill after the increase. I have heard everything from double to half. I pay about $15 a month now for sewer and water. But you have to take into account, I am single and NEVER water my lawn or take 3 hour showers. My beef with water rates in SF is that they don’t start penalizing residential users for over usage until it is extreme. For instance if you use like $500 a month worth your bill is $1000. (yes I know it is hard to believe, but there is residents who use $1000 worth of water a month). I think there should be conservation rates for residential users and put it on a sliding scale.
The other hard thing to swallow is that the city Parks and Rec is the worst offender. This summer when restrictions were in place the city does not follow them. I rode through Yankton Trail park evey morning and they water it almost everyday. This is a park that is only used for games! (yes that’s right, a little known tidbit the rule is the fields can only be used for competition NOT practice). But it get better, obviously when you over water, you have to mow more. They would mow that field almost twice a week. So not only are they wasting my money on watering a field that never gets used (accept for Jazzfest) they waste more overmowing it.
I’m starting to become more and more disgusted with the way this city spends money, I’m surprised Kermit Staggers does not have a drinking problem.
Yankton Trail and the other parks by the river get their water directly from the river, IIRC. They can water whenever they need it and the runoff that doesn’t evaporate just goes back into the river. Having to mow the huge field that often, however, is a problem.
Really though, the water rates here are some of the cheapest I’ve seen anywhere. I used to pay $22/mo. for a one-bedroom apartment in OKC. Now I pay about $16/mo. for a 1700 sqft. house with clothes and dish washers that get used a lot more. I also water my tomato plants in the summer. Water’s still damned cheap here.
It is cheap, but I don’t agree with ‘pre-paying’ for a pipeline. I think putting down 3% and signing a legal binding agreement that says we will pay L & C in full when the water is flowing is fair. But feeding them money when we have no guarantees when we are gonna get it isn’t fair.