STAFF REPORTS
Sewers have become a downright filthy word in New Albany politics.
Part of that is to be blamed on the political hedging by multiple elected officials during the last decade. Their inaction was a contributing factor to a bad situation becoming worse and devolving into pure shock for residents paying their utility bills.
Now more than ever the New Albany City Council and Mayor Doug England should be exploring the establishment of a utility district to govern stormwater and sewer rates.
Louisville has a district, as do many cities, and the common logic is that having a board that’s not elected or chosen by elected officials takes the political jockeying out of rate setting.
New Albany is looking at a 70 percent sewer rate increase. For the past two years, there’s been talk of raising rates but no action by the Council. There was even a presentation last year to the Council by the same firm that relayed the bad news of the needed rate hike to the Sewer Board.
During that presentation, several options were discussed as was the need for the sewer utility to fund itself instead of relying on EDIT subsidies and loans.
The state law requires rates to be set at a level to cover the utility’s expenses.
But there was never a vote, and now a tremendous burden has landed square in the Council’s lap.
It’s never a popular choice to raise any tax, fee or rate, but stumping on sewer costs is nonsensical. There are mandated projects that have to be completed, and service levels that must be met.
These requirements are not negotiable, and somebody has to pay. It’s the same with natural gas and electricity, you pay what it costs for the service.
Sure, there would have been dissension if the Council had established a system where rates would be raised each year based on expenses.
But by putting off the inevitable, the Council now stands to take more heat. In some ways, it’s deserved.
The blame should not be limited to this Council or administration, as the problems have been mounting for at least a decade without any real plan to address the sewer shortfall.
In theory, a sewer district would set rates based on operating expenses. That would be a progressive move. Now, they apparently are decided by political tradewinds with no regard to the pickle that inadequately setting rates has on the future.
