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Editorials
Expect to pay more for water in 2010 : Editorials : Oswego Ledger-Sentinel : Hometown Newspaper for Oswego and Montgomery, IllinoisExpect to pay more for water in 2010
| 12/10/2009
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Oswego and Montgomery residents should prepare to pay a bit more for their water service in the new year.
Next Monday evening, Dec. 14, the Montgomery Village Board is expected to consider and may approve a water rate hike that would go into effect Jan. 1. The rate increase would impact not only the Montgomery residents, but also the village's many customers in the unincorporated Boulder Hill Subdivision.
Some Montgomery Board members have already voiced support for a water rate hike. Long-time board member Bill Keck reminded his board colleagues that the village once went nearly a decade without a rate hike. The end result, he said, was a previous board was left with no alternative but to hit its customers in the village and Boulder Hill with a significant increase to cover the systems' operating costs. Since that time, the board has opted to impose increases on as-needed basis.
Meanwhile, in Oswego, village officials are expected to ask the village's new finance director, Mark Horton, to review the village's water fund and some recently updated rate hike scenarios prepared by an independent consultant hired by the village. One of the reasons the board chose to hire Horton, the former long-time finance director for the City of Wheaton, because of his expertise with water rates.
We would be surprised if Horton does not recommend a rate hike early in the new year. For the past several years the village's own finance department staff and, more recently, an independent consultant have advised the board of the need for a rate hike. Previous boards and the current board, however, have yet to approve a fee increase.
Back in 2007, the board rejected a 17 percent rate hike that was recommended by the village's previous finance director. At the time-more than a year before the outset of the current recession-the board deemed the double-digit rate hike as being two high. In hindsight, that pre-2008 recession rate hike recommendation of 17 percent doesn't seem that bad.
We understand it is not easy for Oswego and Montgomery village board members to vote to increase fees, especially amidst a deep recession. From a political standpoint, it is always difficult for elected officials who run for office on platforms to cut spending and who may harbor further political ambitions to vote in favor of any fee or tax increases. However, they have an obligation to put aside their personal ambitions, and make sure the local water systems have enough revenue to operate and have healthy reserves to pay for always needed repairs and improvements. From our view, both villages can make strong cases for their need for additional water system revenues.
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