On Thursday, the Montgomery County Council and Prince George’s County Council jointly approved a 6% increase in the water and sewer rates for the coming year through the Washington Suburban Sanitary Commission.
During a joint online meeting, the councils took a unanimous vote that included reducing $6.5 million in the WSSC operating expenses to offset the reduction in the proposed rate increase.
WSSC and Montgomery County Executive Marc Elrich had proposed a 7% rate increase for the next fiscal year which starts on July 1.
The majority of the reduction would come from removing pay raises for the next fiscal year.
At the Montgomery County Council’s April 30 meeting, officials said they were hesitant to recommend a rate increase during a public health crisis.
WSSC CFO Patricia Colihan previously told the council that reducing the rate increase to 5% would put the commission into a “dire” financial situation and cause the utility to only have 34 days of cash on hand.
WSSC reported a 10% revenue loss in April. Accounts and amounts for bills that are past due are up by 10%, and due amounts total $3.6 million in nearly two months.
The commission’s current combined water and sewer rates are between $11.89 and $20.26 per 1,000 gallons, depending on daily use.
The councils also approved WSSC’s $3.7 billion capital improvement program for fiscal years 2021 to 2026. The CIP budget for the next fiscal year is $606.7 million — a $31.8 million decrease from WSSC’s fiscal year 2020 approved CIP.
The system development charge will be maintained at the current rate of $203 per fixture unit, while increasing the maximum chargeable rate by 1.5%.
The proposed water production of 164 million gallons per day was approved.
In order for the rate to pass, the majority of each of the county’s council had to vote to approve it. The vote was unanimous to approve WSSC’s roughly $849.7 million operating budget and to remove pay raises.
The councils also unanimously approved their portion of the Maryland-National Capital Park and Planning Commission budget and Central Administrative Services (CAS). They also eliminated pay raises in the proposed budget.
The contributions to CAS include $381,199 from Montgomery County and $241,245 from Prince George’s County.
In addition, the councils approved their separate portions of the Washington Suburban Transit Commission budget, which proposed $123,741 from Montgomery County and $105,738 from Prince George’s County.
Briana Adhikusuma can be reached at briana.adhikusuma@moco360.media.
