In its May 26 special, remote-access meeting, the Marion Select Board passed new water and sewer rates for Fiscal Year 2022, and the new rates will include higher cost for larger consumers.
According to Town Administrator Jay McGrail, the town took on new debt last year due to the drought and the global pandemic, so more water was used and at a higher price. Marion approved a $220,000 subsidy from free cash last year, a first for the town.
Consumption during the 2020 summer months saw a 31 percent increase, and overall usage went up 15 percent over 2019, according to McGrail, who said residents saw “extraordinarily large bills…. Our main focus in FY22 is to keep rates as low as possible.”
In order to accomplish that for the majority of residents, he and Finance Director Judy Mooney proposed a fourth tier to the rate system. Even so, McGrail said managing water usage is the best way to keep bills in check and urged residents to stay alert for breaks and leaks.
Marion surveyed surrounding towns and, despite billing on a quarterly basis (other area towns bill biannually), maintains rates that McGrail says approximate surrounding communities.
In making her presentation to the Select Board, Mooney showed that a continuance of FY21 rates under the preexisting three-tier system would leave debt at the end of FY22. She recommended keeping the lower tiers (i.e. fixed income) as low as possible and adding a fourth tier.
The proposal was for a 3-percent increase on the first, second, and third tiers, and a new fourth tier with a 15-percent increase. The end game, explained Mooney, is trying to establish a $100,000 surplus.
“We’re hitting the larger users, not the fixed income,” said Mooney, who recommended breaking up the preexisting third tier from its 494 ratepayers into 345 in the third tier and 149 in a new fourth tier. “We’re trying not to hit those lower tiers (fixed-income people).”
Both Mooney and Select Board member John Waterman acknowledged there are moving parts going forward with substantial ramifications.
Citing $200,000 of retained earnings to subsidize rates, resulting in a budget sheet showing a surplus, not because of rate increases but because of the subsidy, Waterman noted “a lot of uncertainty in this budget.”
“We need to be as conservative as possible here,” agreed Mooney, pointing out that a dry FY22 would throw off the numbers.
In a slightly more conservative scenario, the new sewer rates include a 2-percent increase on the base rate, a 2.5-percent increase on tiers 2 and 3 and a higher increase for the fourth tier.
A $147,000 budget surplus is projected, but Mooney said the town needs the surplus more on the sewer side and targeted $150,000. Like water, the new rates will be based on consumption and usage. “We hope that we’re very conservative with our numbers; I think we are,” said Mooney.
Sewer debt increased by $250,000 (15 percent) over last year.
“We added a fourth tier, but it’s a $140 difference between the first and second tiers, but only a $22 difference between the third and fourth tiers,” said McGrail.
Waterman said that the FY22 budget is being subsidized by $150,000 in retained earnings from the sewer enterprise fund. “Some of the debt is tied to the lagoon project, which is something none of us have control over,” he said, thanking McGrail, Mooney, and Meghan Davis and Becky Tilden of the Department of Public Works for their time spent in three-hour meetings and what Select Board Chair Norm Hills called “many iterations” of the proposal.