Ask The Answer Person about water and sewer rates in Decorah

(Darrin e-mails: "Being the city council has voted to increase the water and sewer rates in Decorah, are there any current updates regarding the 30 percent increased revenues to the general fund?")

The Answer Person says: "This question came up also at the recent candidate forum at Luther College.  It's perplexing because the major discussions about water and sewer rates came in the spring of 2017 and 2018.  Let's hop in our time machine and go back to those discussions!

First of all, when you pay your water and sewer bill to the City of Decorah, the money goes to a special water fund and a separate sewer fund—NOT to the city's general fund.  Because these are  separate funds, they're set up to require that they not operate in the red, nor can they have a big surpluses, nor can they give funds to other city budgets.  In other words, water and sewer rates are tied to the expenses of operating a water plant and a sewage treatment plant.

At least that's the theory!  But from 1985 until 2012—a span of 27 years--there were only three increases in water rates and two increases in sewer rates.  As a City of Decorah memo states, "utility rate adjustments have neither kept pace with the standard cost-of-living increases nor has new debt been figured into the overall financing of yearly operations."

Since 2012, there have been yearly increases in water and sewer rates in an effort to get the two funds out of the red.  The sewage treatment fund is now in the black, but the water fund is still in the red.  Even with increases over the past seven years, water rates in Decorah are still below the rates in similar communities such as Waverly and Charles City—5,000 gallons of water usage a month in Decorah costs $13.65, while it's $27.25 in Waverly and $16.04 in Charles City.

So, to summarize, there's no slush fund being subsidized by water and sewer rates.  The rates which are being charged are an attempt to get separated funds out of the red and into a place where they have adequate reserves."