More than 3,000 El Dorado Irrigation District customers have so far filed protests objecting to the EID board’s proposal to raise water and sewer rates a whopping 79 percent over five years.
If the rate increases go through as proposed, the average EID household would pay $336 more for water and sewer services this year and in excess of $600 more annually by 2015. Increases of that magnitude will be difficult for struggling families to absorb. For some businesses, El Dorado County Chamber of Commerce CEO Laurel Brent-Bumb says, the increases will be “catastrophic.”
Last Friday, the chamber wrote a letter asking EID to suspend all rate increase activity for 90 days and to appoint a blue-ribbon panel to study the proposal and consider alternatives. The El Dorado County Board of Supervisors has unanimously endorsed the chamber’s request.
The size of the rate hike was not the only thing that troubled supervisors and business leaders. The rate hike notification went out in mid-December and arrived in most customers’ mailboxes between the busy Christmas and New Year holidays when many were too busy to notice. But now that the word is out, tough questions are being raised and rightfully so.
To its credit, the irrigation district appears to have heard its critics and is moving to respond. EID General Manager Jim Abercrombie says district staff will unveil proposals for a scaled-back rate increase when the board meets Monday.
The newest EID proposals will seek to soften the blow on ratepayers in several ways. These include possible salary and benefit reductions for district employees, higher charges for the district’s big hydroelectric customers, and restructuring debt in ways that allow the district to reduce payments to bondholders, at least over the short run.
The changes proposed may not be enough to head off protests aimed at forcing the district to rescind all increases, but they are a necessary first step.