Water Officials Consider $2 Surcharge for Homes

[chlamor]

Water officials consider $2 surcharge for homes
State water officials are considering adding a monthly surcharge to home water bills as they search for ways to pay for failing water initiatives.

By Mike Taugher

CONTRA COSTA TIMES

State water officials are floating a proposal to add a monthly surcharge to residential water bills as they search for ways to fund sagging water initiatives.The proposal was developed to help resolve the worsening financial crunch facing California's most ambitious water program, the 4-year-old blueprint known as CalFed that is meant to resolve environmental and water supply problems in the Delta water system.

Four months ago, the California Bay-Delta Authority, which oversees CalFed, approved a 10-year, $8 billion finance plan that was flatly rejected by state legislators as highly unrealistic and a potential waste of taxpayer money.

<snip>

"We don't need to talk about new taxes (or fees)," said Greg Gartrell, an assistant general manager at the Contra Costa Water District and chairman of a CalFed committee on drinking water. "We need to talk about how to spend the money we have more efficiently. It looks very, very doable."

<snip>

But crashing state and federal budgets and a declining economy put the plan on the ropes. CalFed likely would have dried up completely except for the fact that, in a series of ballot measures through 2002, voters approved more than $10 billion in bonds for parks and water improvements.

http://www.contracostatimes.com/mld/cctimes/news/state/11314193.htm

[boneygrey]

1. You live in CA

you've got to roll with the punches.

[democracyindanger]

2. You can almost hear the oncoming "privatization" train

I think in the next 5 or 6 years, some idiot Republican is going to suggest turning over water utilities to private companies.

[w4rma]

3. Don't let them in the door with this regressive BS. It's also the first

shot in trying to privatize water supplies.

[TahitiNut]

4. Residential water is less than 10% of fresh water consumption in CA

In the rural Central Valley, most homes don't even have meters. This is typical of the stranglehold that corporate agribusiness has in the state.