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The reason for the surcharge is Orwellian. The water company asked us to reduce, reuse and recycle. We complied. We did such a great job, that they increased
by docker_up 8y ago
The reason for the surcharge is Orwellian.
The water company asked us to reduce, reuse and recycle. We complied.
We did such a great job, that they increased rates because we weren't using enough water and they weren't making enough money.
It's insane.
- jayd16 8y agoI'm not sure Orwellian fits. Really the price should be a flat rate because its not about the marginal cost of providing water. ...but then that leads to the idea that you can use any amount of water and it's fine so they have a punitive use charge to change user behavior. But because of the extra revenue, they can lower the flat rate. ...but that gets you in trouble if the punitive charges decrease. So you have to adjust to a relative usage surcharge which is basically where we're at but it just looks like "why lower if they raise the rates?". ...well because it's relative to everyone else's usage.
- lisper 8y agoI think the word the GP was looking for is "Kafkaesque".
- butstillbad99 8y agoDid you expect the utility to eat the costs of lower consumption despite their costs going up? I doubt the dip in water use was enough to offset the wear on infra that needs to be dealt with. Or the labor costs to do that maintenance which go up each year. Oh sure some of the revenue may be useless but you can’t expect something like a water utility to behave like a social media company. Facebook could go tits up and people are out of jobs. What happens when a water utility folds?