AnonymousBy an edhat reader
Did anyone else get the email from the City of Santa Barbara about a proposed wastewater and trash rate increase? What now? I’m curious what other edhat readers think.
Below is the email:
The City of Santa Barbara is proposing increased wastewater (sewer) and trash & recycling rates to provide revenue needed to fund the cost of providing safe and reliable utility service. The City’s Rate Notice describes the proposed rate increases, how you can get involved, and where you can find more information.
- Click here to view the Wastewater and Trash & Recycling Rate Notice.
- For more information regarding the wastewater system please click here.
- For more information regarding trash & recycling please click here.
- Para información en Español llame a (805) 564-5343.
This might be the most important part for those who don’t agree with this:
How do I protest?
If you wish to protest any of the above increases, you must deliver your protest signed and in writing, including your name and service address, to the City Clerk of the City of Santa Barbara at 735 Anacapa Street, Santa Barbara, CA, 93101, prior to or during the City Council’s consideration of this item on June 12, 2018. You may also submit your protest during the public hearing by presenting it to City Staff in the Council Chambers. During the hearing, the City Council will consider all protests delivered at or before the hearing as well as public testimony. Protests are public records.
Looks like rates will go up every three to six months now. I love how The City told us they’d have to increase rates (long while back) due to drought, but then, when we got loads of rain and Cachuma overflowed, the rates never went back down. Up, up, up they keep going, those rates. Build, build, build everywhere in Santa Barbara. Where’s all the water supposed to come from to support the increase in population? Eventually all of us will get the message and the minority of us who already are conserving the heck out of water will be joined by those who just don’t want to pay through the nose for these rates.
City employee pension short-falls and health benefits increases means annual there will be constant rate increases. This is no longer a commodity you purchase, and pay for what you use. It is now a cash flow scheme that primarily supports city employees. This is what you voted for.
I am so programmed to conserve water that when I see a movie and the actor is letting the faucet water run into the sink as s/he stands staring out the kitchen window or gazing into the bathroom mirror or, as in a recently viewed movie, the actor is sitting in the shower (grief-stricken, upset, whatever) and letting the shower water run and run and run I will shout at the screen “Turn the water off!”
cachuma is still so low that we will see it hit the low of ~20% this summer more than likely.
but I do agree with the “when rates go up……. then never come back down” cause that is 100% true, once they get you on the hook for more, why would they decrease it? makes you wonder next time you hear utilities or landlords raise prices, citing “temporary service/ utility increase”.
The rate increases are not a surprise, google ” Santa Barbara Urban Water Management Plan” and you will find a pdf of how the city plans to manage the water through 2035. Lots of interesting nuggets and tables on how the system is “rigged”…I mean setup. like the one below from page 63
8.6 Revenue and Expenditure Impacts
The City has used tiered rates to encourage water conservation since 1989. The tiered system provides standardized allotments for residential customers based on the type of building (single family vs . multi-family) and number of dwelling units.
Historical usage has not been used as the basis for allotments since it tends to penalize customers who have practiced efficient water use. Commercial and industrial allotments are based on historical off-peak usage, since appropriate usage rates vary widely for customers in these classes. Irrigation billing provides a first tier allotment that is a weather-based water budget sufficient for landscapes that are compliant with the City’s landscape design standards. Usage in excess of budget is billed at a higher rate. The tiered rate system worked well during the 1987-1992 drought when tier allotments and prices were modified as necessary to ensure adequate revenue. The system proved to be workable even for the 50 percent shortages experienced. The City’s experience has been that tiered prices and allotments are best determined based on actual circumstances rather than trying to determine appropriate values in advance of the drought based on hypothetical situations. The City now has a comprehensive water rate model used to balance water system revenues and costs under normal and water shortage conditions. A tiered rate system presents challenges with revenue stability under normal conditions and even more so during water shortages. The rate model enables the City to identify costs of service for the various water supply sources and system components and apply them in accordance with Proposition 218 to identify suitable water rates to meet revenue requirements.
“revenue needed to fund the cost of providing safe and reliable utility service”.
Same fear mongering used every time they’re looking for more money, whether it be the police or fire they claim won’t be able to adequately serve the city.
Too bad the city choose not to require the AUD projects to shoulder some mitigation fees for the costs for the increased useage and infrastructure upgrades required by the $3K a month “workforce housing”
Very funny!
Unfortunately just another money grab that will never stop, particularly in this state. (Which is why so many people are “getting the hell out of Dodge”; and you can count my wife and I doing the same in a few years when we retire.) What about the 1% increase in city tax that was approved on the last ballot, although NO ONE I know voted for that nebulous increase? How about the “Your sewer wye is defective and needs replacement” notices many residents are getting? Where does the $800 permit money go that you have to pay the city (before you have to spend another $10-15k to replace the wye itself) even though those Vactor 2500 Ramjet trucks you see all around jetting high pressure water down through manhole covers into the sewer lines is what has damaged your wye. And let’s not forget the gas tax and increase in vehicle registration fees that are now in place. All of this stuff disgusts me and I really can’t wait to get out of my deteriorated home state. As the middle class continues to leave for more affordable states, where are these bureaucracies, public works, politicians, and government agencies going to get their money from? I guess they don’t realize they are slowly killing the goose that laid the golden (state?) egg.
Oh quit your whinging. You’ll just got a very generous tax cut (at least $1000 or more for most Americans according to the administration) on the one hand and didn’t think it wasn’t going to be taken back on the other?
Blaming the jet trucks on the reason for damage to your wye… pure nonsense!
In most communities you own your sewer lateral only to about 3 feet of the sewer main. SB says you own and are responsible for the wye although it is part of the main line. Unfortunately, the attitude espoused by the carpet bagger mayor from New York, “Santa Barbara is a nice place and you should be willing to pay more to live here”, is the pervasive attitude among city employees. This was the attitude when we had to replace our wye 2 years ago and from Ursula when we paid the water bill in person. SB used to be relatively affordable, not too crowded and a generally delightful place to call home. We missed that SB when we lived there, and are very glad we left. We now pump as much water as we want from our deep well for pennies rather than paying the city hundreds of dollars. There is no shortage of water on our farm and no arrogant SB city employees to deal with. My first 3 decades in SB were great but the last decade was not.
You are kidding, RIGHT? Or maybe you work for the city public works department. I have verified information from expert sources who have told me the Vactor trucks ARE damaging homeowner’s wyes. Do you think several thousand psi of water pressure being jetted down the sewer lines can’t do any damage to clay wyes? My wye passed inspection, as did my neighbor’s, 3 1/2 years ago when the city did the smoke checks. Why is my wye and all the neighbor’s wyes around our neighborhood suddenly “defective” when nothing has changed since then except the constant Vactor jetting??? Funny that the city council voted to take away any subsidies for wye replacement several years ago and also voted at that time to put the responsibility of the wye on the homeowner and not the city. I imagine the city thinks its citizen homeowners are imbeciles who won’t question this egregious situation. You can be certain a class-action lawsuit for this city money grab will be coming up in the future.
“Suitable rates” are not lawful rates.
JACKPOT for Govt workers! Tax & rate increases keep cash flowing to fund pay salary increases, overtime, shorter work week, system gaming, & pension increases. We crossed the mid-point: majority benefit from Govt pay-outs & vote accordingly. What do you think of 45 Sheriff vacancies & $7.5M in overtime pay? Or knowing 65% of all SB children are served by County social services paid for by others because parents are no longer expected or required to feed or support children they choose to create? No worries: 65% don’t know the definition or responsibilities of parenting because we’re nice SB fools. SB Payers are outnumbered, but are we fools, too. .
JACKPOT for Govt workers! Tax & rate increases keep cash flowing to fund salary increases, overtime, shorter work week, system gaming, & pension increases. We crossed the mid-point: majority benefit from Govt pay-outs & vote accordingly. What do you think of 45 Sheriff vacancies & $7.5M in overtime pay? Or knowing 65% of all SB children are served by County social services paid for by others because parents are no longer expected or required to feed or support children they choose to create? No worries: 65% don’t know the definition or responsibilities of parenting because we’re nice SB fools. SB Payers are outnumbered, but are we fools, too? The informed with financial means seem to pack up & leave: 1M middle & upper middle income citizens left last year reports Dept of Finance.
JACKPOT for Govt workers! Tax & rate increases keep cash flowing to fund salary increases, overtime, shorter work week, system gaming, & pension increases. We crossed the mid-point: majority benefit from Govt pay-outs & vote accordingly. What do you think of 45 Sheriff vacancies & $7.5M in overtime pay? Or knowing 65% of all SB children are served by County social services paid for by others because parents are no longer expected or required to feed or support children they choose to create? No worries: 65% don’t know the definition or responsibilities of parenting because we’re nice SB fools. SB Payers are outnumbered, but are we fools, too? The informed with financial means seem to pack up & leave: 1M middle & upper middle income citizens left last year reports Dept of Finance.