Cedar Rapids utility rates rising too much

Since June 2008, the residential daily service charge for water, sewer treatment, storm sewer, solid waste and recycling services has gone from $0.9304 per day to $1.3802 per day, or an increase of 48.34 percent, which equates to $164.18 per household annually.

The usage rate for this time period has increased from $2.66/ccf to $3.22/ccf, or a 21.05 percent increase for units used. The average household in Cedar Rapids according to the 2010 census is 2.4 people, and the population was 126,326 people. The average person in Cedar Rapids uses 2,000 gallons of water per month. Thus, the average household uses 4,800 gallons or 6.42 ccf of water per month. Each household is credited 2 ccfs per month. Therefore, each household is paying an additional $29.70 per year for water usage.

Each household is paying an additional $193.88 per year on city utilities. Based upon the census numbers, residential customers exceed 50,000 - 50,000 residential customers with an average increase of $200 per year is a total of $10 million in additional revenue generated by the City of Cedar Rapids.

They are going to increase these rates by an additional 4.4 percent during 2012. On average, residential property taxes have gone up 15.5 percent since 2006 with an estimated increase of 4.5 percent for this year. If Alliant or MidAmerica raised their rates this much, everyone would be screaming. Isn't this taxation without representation? Similar results exist for commercial accounts.

Thomas Matovina

Cedar Rapids