Did you know Montgomery County Council is going to recommend a WSSC Water rate increase of at least 5.9%? Yes, with all our financial struggles, from COVID they expect you to pay more for water!
There is a Council vote this Tuesday morning 10/27. They need to hear from us by 9:00 am Tuesday!
Here's a EMAIL IDEA -- it's as easy as copy, paste, send!
Subject line: I Oppose WSSC Water's rate increase for their FY22 Budget
Body: Montgomery County Council should keep our water and sewer rates steady during this time of economic crisis and job loss, especially among retail workers and low income jobs. Continuing to increase rates will not resolve WSSC’s long-time financial management problems, keep our water supply clean, or fix the aging infrastructure. Instead, WSSC's continued practice of luxurious spending combined with investments on poorly-managed projects will continue to be enabled by the Council's repeated approval of unnecessary annual rate increases.
Note: WSSC also just shared that the AMI smart meter proposal will be a whopping 200 million dollars!
Since these increases are at the expense of your constituents, I request:
1) No salary increase for upper Management. With the unprecedented amount of job losses throughout the county, ratepayers cannot afford to continue to fund the overly inflated salaries of WSSC. The General Manager already makes more than twice as much as most of our elected officials.
2) WSSC should defer funding at this time for planning work that has no direct bearing on the provision of clean, safe water by WSSC to the public. This includes the debt services charges -- in the tens of millions of dollars -- for projects in the Capital Improvement Plan. Such projects include: Laboratory Division Building Expansion, Energy Performance Program, Advanced Metering Infrastructure, and Piscataway Bioenergy.
3) Your awareness that the WSSC staff, by its own admission, provided an out of date, 9-year old financial estimate regarding the Advanced Metering Infrastructure project to the WSSC Commissioners and you. The practice of Montgomery County customers continually bailing out WSSC resulting from its financial mismanagement and lack of transparency should stop.
In the midst of a global pandemic and utilities becoming less affordable, you need to support your constituents and wise practices. Water is essential to survival. Increasing the price of water while households and businesses are suffering is unacceptable. Instead, make WSSC stop the mismanagement of their funds –– and do not approve any rate increases for WSSC’s FY22 budget.
Signed,
[your name]
[your county]
Send to: marc.elrich@montgomerycountymd.gov, countyexecutive@co.pg.md.us, Councilmember.Albornoz@montgomerycountymd.gov, Councilmember.Friedson@montgomerycountymd.gov, Councilmember.Glass@montgomerycountymd.gov, Councilmember.Hucker@montgomerycountymd.gov, Councilmember.Jawando@montgomerycountymd.gov, Councilmember.Katz@montgomerycountymd.gov, Councilmember.Navarro@montgomerycountymd.gov, Councilmember.Rice@montgomerycountymd.gov, Councilmember.Riemer@montgomerycountymd.gov
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