Where's the cuts?

Remember last month when the sewer bill was increased to $72 rather than $85? We were told that staff and consultants had really worked hard to cut costs and save that extra $13 a month.

If only...

Sorry, but there were no cuts or cost savings. Here's an analysis of the new revised numbers. The items that were removed from the expenses were the line items for new sewer plant operations. The new sewer plant won't be online for a year so those expenses weren't needed anyway.

The only actual budget reduction was the amount for the delinquency allowance. There was an anticipation of about $257,000 expensed due to non-payment of sewer bills. Now that that new ordinace requires landlords to put the water/sewer bill in their name, the strategy is that if the tenants don't pay their bills, the City can put a lien on the landlord. As a landlord myself, I think it's a bad idea since you can't control how much the tenant uses. Anyway, that expense has been reduced to $51,500.

Actually, there was one increase in the proforma. Salaries - starting in 2010. The 4/4/07 proforma had an annual 3% increase in salaries built in. An update on 4/27/08 bumped it another 3.9%. The new proforma expenses include an additional 8.3% per year! So, in 2010 and at least through 2016, a big jump for a total of 15.5% per year.

Here's the comparision Chart


~Enjoy