Danny Boy, The Pipes Are Really Calling: Time to Stop City Subsidies for Town Water and Sewer Usage

Like our outrageously high City property taxes, our City water and sewer charges are way out of line with our regional counterparts. Why is that? And what could we do about it? There’s a long answer, that is really long. Here’s the short answer, that gets right to the point: Stop Geneva City subsidies for Geneva Town water and sewer use and make Geneva Town users pay their fair share of the total cost of the operation!

The City pipes water out to customers in water districts outside of the City limit. We also pipe in and treat sewage from non-residents. We charge them, but the rates they pay don’t cover our total costs, the infrastructure. Geneva City users pay for that. Geneva Town users just pay as they go for what they use. It’s like letting your kids borrow the car. They might pay for some gas, but you’re still stuck with all the repair bills.

When it comes to the specific issue of sewage, the City maintains a well-run wastewater treatment plan with high standards for purifying the ‘effluent’ that gets discharged back into Seneca Lake. More and more outlying areas desire to move from wells to sanitary sewers. More and more development in the town has meant more ties into the existing treatment system.

As a consequence, the City has been required to upgrade and expand our infrastructure. That’s what that “DEC Consent Order” is all about. New York State told the City of Geneva, “You MUST need upgrade your facilities to deal with all the demand on your system., and we don’t care what it costs, just get it done.” That’s what all those pipes lying around last summer were for. In short, the government ordered us to upgrade our facilities to handle town users Our rates for Town users should reflect our total costs. Right now, they don’t.

The reality of the situation couldn’t be clearer: Town users of City services are getting them at below-market rates. That’s because they are subsidized by City users. It’s time to do what every surrounding community in this situation does: Charge the town at least what city residents have to bear. Better yet, add a premium, like many communities do!

This is not to say that Town residents have refused to pay. We. the City have just failed to adequately bill. At the risk of some technicalities, here’s why:

1. Town users have two meter systems: one for water taken out of the system and one for sewage put back in. The town bill is calculated based on that actual usage. By contrast, city residents have one meter. It is assumed that whatever water is taken into the building equals the sewage put back out. But think about the way you use water, not every drop goes back down the drain. What about filling a pool, watering the lawn, running a boiler? We actually believe that having only one meter makes sense, because the cost of installing and monitoring separate meters for every property is simply not feasible. But, this is one example of the way town residents get discounted services.
2. The water and sewer rates are calculated based on expenses and debt services paid by city residents. Right now, non-city users pay a slight premium on both water and sewer rates. But while it covers the ongoing treatment costs for their usage, it is in no way proportional to the cost and debt service for the facility upgrades that are required to continue providing the quality service. This is a major failing of the previous sewer agreement that expired four years ago. And it needs to be remedied immediately!
3. About that sewer agreement, the city and town operated for 20 years under an agreement that locked town rates in at unacceptably low levels. Since the contract lapsed, four years ago, there has been a reluctance on the part of the Town to accept its role as a partner in providing this essential service. If it did so, it would enter into a contract that shared the real costs proportionally with city residents. However, the city administration has been all too content to have city residents continue to subsidize town users by not being more forceful in the negotiations.

There’s another plus if we pursue this action. If town users paid their fair share, we could offer additional relief for own low income senior citizens in the City by decreasing their water and sewer bills. It’s a good idea, and we support it. But in much the same way we felt about a property tax break for that same group, we think “A senior citizen discount for water and sewer would be nice, but lower rates for everyone in the City would be better."