93.9 The Eagle – The News and Talk of Columbia, MO
Water rates are going up in Columbia, especially if you water the lawn.
The city council on Tuesday night approved a four-percent increase in water fees. But there is now a tiered system, putting more of the hike on people that go way above their average winter consumption in the summer.
According to the city, for most homes inside the city limits the non-summer water usage rate will go from $2.79 to $2.86. In the summer, the first tier, or up to 70 percent of average winter consumption (AWC), will be $2.86. Tier two, 71-to-170 percent AWC, will have a usage rate of $4.01. The third tier, above 170% AWC, will have a rate of $6.02.
“From the perspective of those folks that are driving that capacity, I refuse to subsidize that behavior on the backs of everybody else,” councilman Karl Skala said Tuesday night.
The rate system changed passed 4-3. Opponents said the new tier system should have been advertised when voters passed the water bond issue last August.
“If we were going to re-structure the rates, and do it with the same rate increase, we should have presented that to voters prior to the ballot issue,” mayor Brian Treece said. “Because we didn’t, it seems sneaky to me.”
See more info about the water rate changes here.
