The wrong lesson
Picture: Overview of the Marin County Watershed as seen from Mount Tamalpais, Marin County, California
I can understand why they’re upset. Marin County is one of the San Francisco Bay Area’s more affluent regions. The normal cursory thought of “Well, they can afford it” would usually draw little attention. Yet my empathy lies totally with the angry citizens of Marin, who are currently expressing outrage at having their water rates raised. Why the upset? It’s well understood that the cost of living is always on the rise. The answer isn’t what one might expect. The citizens of Marin were asked to conserve water as California suffered through a number of dry years. The citizens did such a good job of conserving water, that reservoirs are now overflowing from recent storms, and the water utility experienced such a low demand for water, that their budget revenue fell 10%. The Marin Water District is now seeking to make up for the loss of revenue caused by it’s citizens excellent conservation efforts. In a case of pure ‘government logic’, they’ve decided to rewarded those who excelled in conservation by raising their rates.
Tell me there’s not something wrong with this picture? If you do a good job of saving a resource, we’re going to charge you more for using the resource. No doubt in my mind; that’s the wrong lesson.
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February 25th, 2010 at 2:35 pm
A tax on performance. That’s all this is. Talk about a way of losing credibility…this is a sad and very shortsighted move on their part…
February 26th, 2010 at 12:57 pm
I lived in Marin for most of my life and the people conserve a lot over there (and eat a lot of tofu too..lol.) What did the MMWD expect? Typical bureaucratic planning in action.
Patrick
February 26th, 2010 at 1:38 pm
I sure hope they put up a fight against bad reasoning and win.
February 27th, 2010 at 4:29 pm
Heh. Government in action. Always looking for ways (and justifications) to raise rates (and taxes), but never cut them.
Note that the Marin County water district will *NOT* lower the rates if Marin County residents started using *MORE* water because the drought restrictions are no longer needed for the time being.
The proper course for the water district would have been to cut staff (and/or overtime hours) to reduce the costs to match revenue. That’s what business do, but not governments.