WASA passes shortfall budget; rate hike to come

By JOHN MUNFORD
jmunford@TheCitizenNews.com

Peachtree City's Water and Sewer Authority has approved a $4.9 million budget for the coming year.

While that is technically a deficit budget, which will be covered with funds from the authority's cash reserves, the budget figures will have to be revisited within the next six months when a rate hike is considered, said General Manager Larry Turner.

The rate increase, which would be enacted to help pay for expansion of the sewer system to treat an additional 2 million gallons of sewage a day, is estimated to be in the $4 to $5 range, Turner added. That overall project will cost over $15 million to complete.

Turner said it didn't make sense to raise the sewer rates now and then raise them again several months down the road.

The anticipated shortfall of $222,000 will be made up by the cash reserve, although the authority decided to shrink that by budgeting about $89,000 less for regulatory monitoring fees, a fund used to pay any fines levied by the state Environmental Protection Division.

The budget includes represents an overall increase of 1.8 percent from last year's budget, with a 2.4 percent increase in salaries.

The salary increase was due to having to pay a higher wage to operators hired by the authority, Turner said. The increase was also inflated since there were a number of vacancies last year that kept the authority from being at full staff, Turner added.

Back to News Home Page | Back to the top of the page