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Home > Blogs > Butler County News and Issues > Archives > 2008 > December > 09 > Entry
Promised water rate reduction in question
Despite aggressive budget cuts at the Butler County Water and Sewer Department, the national recession could make it hard for the agency to hold to its promised rate reductions next year.
The Water and Sewer Department outlined a budget to county leaders today, Dec. 9, that included a nearly $1.9 million reduction in the agency’s budget for next year.
This, despite a $493,398 increase in the cost of water purchased from Hamilton and Cincinnati — mostly Hamilton, under a contract county officials have long lamented as too expensive.
Water and Sewer Director Sue Vance said her department made the biggest cuts in personnel and electric costs. The agency has eliminated 16 positions over the past year and has plans to cut more in coming months, Vance said. Personnel costs alone are going down $1.4 million alone next year.
County officials said they still hope to reduce water and sewer rates in the first quarter of 2009 as promised, but “maybe not in the percentages that were stated previously, because we have to be cognizant of the recession,” said County Administrator Tim Williams.
Vance presented a plan in May that would lead to a 10 percent drop in water bills and a 15 percent cut in sewer bills.
But that was before the full breadth of the nationwide recession was clear, officials said. The county is estimating 355 new water customers next year and 530 new sewer hook-ups, down from 1,275 water and 1,664 sewer hook-ups in 2004.
This is a revenue drop of millions of dollars that is used to replace aging systems and pay off debt on expansions made when the county’s growth was booming, Williams said.
The Water and Sewer Department serves 36,564 water customers and 41,552 sewer customers in Monroe, New Miami and West Chester, Lemon, Liberty, Fairfield, Hanover and Ross townships.
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