Title
Approval of Incorporated County of Los Alamos Code Ordinance No. 02-275, An Ordinance Amending Chapter 40, Article III, Sections 40-171 and 40-175 of the Code of the Incorporated County of Los Alamos Pertaining to Potable Water Rates and Bulk Delivery Rates
Recommended Action
I move that the Board of Public Utilities approve Incorporated County of Los Alamos Code Ordinance No. 02-275, An Ordinance Amending Chapter 40, Article III, Sections 40-171 and 40-175 of the Code of the Incorporated County of Los Alamos Pertaining to Potable Water Rates and Bulk Delivery Rates and forward to Council with a recommendation for adoption.
Staff Recommendation
Staff recommends the motion be passed as presented.
Body
The ten-year forecast for the water utility presented with the FY2018 budget includes a series of incremental rate increases to generate revenues needed for current operations and to build cash reserves necessary for future infrastructure needs. Over the course of several meetings of the Board of Public Utilities in the fall of 2016 several alternative scenarios were considered. After discussion, “scenario 40” was selected as the most reasonable balance between increased rates and necessary system expenditures, and was the foundation upon which the ten-year budgetary projection was based. An 8% increase in both retail and wholesale sales is proposed. These rate increases were included in the FY2018 budget, and are proposed for implementation effective with our customer’s first billing period beginning after August 1st, 2017.
The proposed water rate ordinance is attached as Attachment A.
Water Distribution and Water Production are separate “sub funds” of the Water Utility. Starting when the water system was transferred from the DOE in 1998, wholesale water rates have been designed to provide for future well replacements, so the Water Production sub-fund has always maintained a significant cash balance. As has been discussed previously, over the past s...
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