City taxpayers will be paying a higher City property tax rate (as a result of the library referendum), a higher County property tax rate (as a result of County Council’s 1 mill increase) and now higher water rates based on the vote of the board of the Water and Sewer Authority. Based on a typical residential customer (use of 4,500 gallons per month) the increase will tack on $2.57 per month to the typical $47.12 bill, which itself was boosted to that amount by a 7.7% increase in 2010.
According to the City CAFR (the page titled “Revenue Bond Coverage”) the PWSA’s gross revenues increased 231% from 2001 to 2010 ($60.4 million to $139.7 million) while operating expenses grew 242% over that same time frame ($38 million to $93.1 million). In 2010 the net revenue (gross revenue – operating expense) was $46.5 million, while debt service was $55.6 million. That means net revenue cover 84% of the annual debt service. The debt-which in total is $662 .7 million-is not a direct obligation of the City of Pittsburgh government.
After envisioning the PWSA as an agency that would be interested in purchasing other small municipal systems after it did so in 2009 when it bought Millvale’s system (the authority’s head at the time said the “city authority is considering buying other water systems in surrounding communities”) the discussion recently turned to privatization as a possibility. The Mayor mentioned that “We remain open-minded to doing what’s best for the city of Pittsburgh.”
