What most people don’t realize is that those increased impact fees that developers have to pay in the future will never include the cost of water from the Vista Ridge deal, because of how that deal was structured. It is extraordinarily expensive water that SAWS expects current residents to pay for, even though most do not benefit at all.
Commentary: Who is Really Paying for SAWS Rate Structure?
Meredith McGuire, The Rivard Report
August 25, 2015
This commentary is an expanded version of the statement Dr. Meredith McGuire made to City Council, Citizens to Be Heard session on August 12, 2015.
City Council is now considering
San Antonio Water System‘s (SAWS) proposed new rate structure. It will determine how the many rate increases (to be proposed for each of the next five years) will affect San Antonio residents and businesses. City Council and the Mayor should reject the proposed rate plan. It is extremely unjust to current residents and it will promote environmentally unsustainable growth of suburban sprawl.
There are many injustices embedded in SAWS’ rates, but the greatest of these has been happening to San Antonio residents for several decades. The proposed rate structure magnifies that injustice and makes it permanent, unless the Vista Ridge deal is cancelled. Now is the time to end that injustice – and even to consider a rate structure with some restorative justice for those who have been harmed.
The key issue is: Who benefits from the new water that SAWS is seeking? And who pays?
Read the full story at www.therivardreport.com