Politics & Government

Baltimore Water Bills to Rise 9%

The Department of Public Works said the rate hike is needed to pay for the city's aging infrastructure.

Baltimore’s Board of Estimates approved a 9 percent water and sewer rate increase Wednesday morning.

The increase will be reflected on residents’ next quarterly bill. City officials have estimated that a family of four, with an average consumption rate of 320 gallons a day, will see an annual increase of $85.88.

Officials with the Department of Public Works said the increase is necessary to pay for improving century-old infrastructure and to comply with mandates from the EPA.

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The rate increase is not expected to be the last.

Water rates are expected to increase by at least 9 percent annually through fiscal year 2016, city officials said.

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There are about 400,000 city water meters in the region, which includes customers in Anne Arundel and Baltimore counties.

A few residents attended the meeting to register last-ditch complaints with the five member board controlled by Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake. The board approved the increase by a 4-0 vote, with City Council President Bernard C. "Jack" Young abstaining.

Daniel Lightfoot, 60, said that high property taxes and rising water bills are forcing elderly neighbors out of their homes. Lightfoot, who owns a home in Mondawmin, said an elderly relative is now living with him because her house went up for tax sale due to unpaid water bills.

“I just can’t understand how you’re going to raise a rate that is already too high,” Lightfoot said.

Glenard S. Middleton Sr., executive director of AFSCME Council 67, told the board his union’s membership of city workers objects to the increase.

Middleton, the husband of Councilwoman Sharon Green Middleton, said the hike would hurt the “working poor.”

Comptroller Joan Pratt, a Board of Estimates member, also told public works officials that they must improve the city’s billing system. Pratt said water bills being sent to residents based on years-old usage estimates are unacceptable. 

"We need to have accurate bills that are being sent out and we need to move forward in a timely manner," Pratt said.

Councilwoman Mary Pat Clarke, D-District 14, recently introduced a bill that will require residential meters to be physically read, if accessible, before a water bill can be sent.


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