Philadelphia's Water Department To Raise Rates By More Than 6% Over Next 4 Years
By Mike Dunn
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- An aging infrastructure and environmental regulations are being blamed for the Philadelphia Water Department's plan to boost rates by more than six percent in each of the next four years.
Water Department officials say they face a deficit on the order of $316 million, so they've unveiled a plan to boost rates starting this October and rising through 2016.
"What we're going to be seeing over the next four years is a projected increase on the order of six point five percent per year, over those four years. And that would translate to an average increase of about four dollars and ten cents per month for the average residential customer bill," says spokesperson Joanne Dahme.
The sum total of that is the average monthly bill will go from the current $57 a month to nearly $74 a month by 2016. Public hearings will be held between now and October before a final decision on the hikes is made by Philadelphia's Water Commissioner.
