The Sunnyvale Sun

News

Combined rate hike puts the big pinch on residents

By JASON GOLDMAN-HALL

The average Sunnyvale utility bill will rise by slightly more than $5 a month on June 1, when the city implements three increases for water, wastewater and solid waste services.

At the April 25 city council meeting, the council unanimously voted to increase the price of water to residents by 11.5 percent, and raise the cost for wastewater and solid waste disposal by 6 percent and 5.5 percent, respectively. Those percentages result in increases of $2.51 for water, $1.25 for wastewater and $1.62 for solid waste disposal.

The council--minus the vacationing John Howe--said it was reluctant to raise rates because of Sunnyvale's fixed- and low-income population, but added the increases were necessary because of increases from water suppliers.

Although water rates increased, rates for wastewater and solid waste both dropped, helping balance out the total increase in city expenditures.

Ironically, the wet weather the Bay Area has had over the past two winters has led to an increase in fees because less water was purchased, which left funding shortfalls that have to be made up now.

Sunnyvale resident Werner Gans said he was shocked by the proposed increase, because it was 7 percent higher than the typical increase of around
5 percent each year. He said any increase strains residents of Sunnyvale who must tightly budget their money.

"There are a lot of people in the city who are on fixed incomes, and people who don't make $150,000 a year. They can't keep taking what are large increases in their rates," Gans said.

The large increase is primarily due to a projected 16.2 percent increase in the cost of water from the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission, which provides almost half of Sunnyvale's water. The Santa Clara Valley Water District raised its water rates by 4.9 percent.

San Francisco Public Utilities raised rates this year to help fund its ongoing $4.2 billion improvement project.

"It's an unfortunate situation that we have this increase from our supplier and we have to pass it on," said Councilman Dean Chu.

According to the report to council, city staff estimated an increase of at least 9.5 percent next year to cover rising costs. Councilman Chris Moylan said the positive side to that increase is that it will encourage Sunnyvale to look into more water recycling measures.

"It's a regional problem that we need to find ways to solve," Moylan said.

Sunnyvale currently gets less than 20 percent of its water from reclaimed water or local wells.

But water was the only higher-than-expected increase the council approved. Wastewater increased by 6 percent, 1.5 percent less than expected. City staff said the lower increase was because of lower operating costs, less money spent on improvement projects and higher-than-expected revenues from connection fees.

Overall, bills will increase by approximately 7 percent on June 1, raising the average monthly cost to residents from $72.42 to $77.80.