As projected before the 2010 municipal budget process even began, sewer rates in West Windsor are going up, as projected before the 2010 municipal budget process even began. Now the Township Council has memorialized that increase by adopting this year’s official sewer rates.
This year’s sewer rate, passed in resolution form last month, are set for $3.76 per 100 cubic feet of billing flow — an increase over last year’s rate of $3.40.
In February, officials described a change in the way the Stony Brook Regional Sewerage Authority calculates its shareholders’ debt service, which they said would result in a hefty price tag in West Windsor’s 2010 budget — to the tune of $211,000.
The increase came as a result of a change in the formula used to calculate the debt service owed by each of the seven communities. The new formula, which stabilizes annual payments and makes them more predictable, uses a seven-year average flow rate to reapportion the cumulative debt service paid by each town — a formula agreed upon in the amended service contract each town has signed with the SBRSA. The previous formula calculated a debt service adjustment based on flows for that year. The problem was that weather affected the flows of each community differently, meaning the rates fluctuated — sometimes drastically — from year to year.
In the resolution passed by the Township Council on July 19, the township will need to raise a total of $3.17 million through sewer taxes.
Breaking that down, $398,693 will cover sewer and water operations, while $86,385 will be used to cover an operating budget. In addition to utility expenses, data processing, and postage fees, the sewer budget also reflects $16,637 needed for the tax collector’s work in collecting the sewer and rent, as well as $7,000 in billing charges. There is also $16,400 allotted for the chief financial officer’s budget in handling the collection of sewer taxes.
Business Administrator Robert Hary said that even though these figures are included in the 2010 municipal budget, a formal resolution is passed every year to establish the sewer rate, which takes into account “both the maintenance and debt services and staff time.”
“A sewer rate is struck based on our expenses,” he said.
