From KVIA.com:
El Paso Water and the City of El Paso are discussing potential changes to impact fees, which homebuilders pay for the extension of service lines to new housing developments. El Paso water says these fees have remained unchanged since 2009, despite rising construction costs.
Impact fees are charged to builders when they request a new water meter for a new development project in West, East and Northeast El Paso, considered “the new areas.” State statute requires a recalculation of these fees every five years. This year, El Paso Water is proposing an increase as they say this will lower the costs on current ratepayers.
Arturo Duran, El Paso Water Utilities Chief Financial Officer, told ABC7 ratepayers are currently helping recover the costs needed for infrastructure in the new areas, “The more we collect on impact fees, the less the utility has to borrow to finance those projects,” he says.
El Paso Water provided the proposed impact fees to ABC-7, “This is for a typical three quarter inch meter, which is a majority of our residential customers and businesses use,” explained Duran. Current fees for water and wastewater in the Northeast are at $1,469 and could rise to $5,684, if approved. In West El Paso, fees are at $1,586 and could go up to $3257. The east side of El Paso would see the most significant increase, going from $1,617 to $17,981. Duran says this is due to the big increase in new projects, such as the expansion of the Bustamante plan and the advanced water purification facility.
Public input is crucial in the decision, Duran invites community members to participate in the last public meeting that will be held today at the Northeast Regional Command Center from 5:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m. El Paso Water will provide feedback from the meetings and different service fee options to City Council on Tuesday, April 23.
If you live an established neighborhood, you are (and have been) subsidizing new development out on the fringes of the city. All the older neighborhoods, even the some of the poorest neighborhoods in the United States, have been subsidizing that sticks and stucco sprawl on the west side, the east side, and northeast El Paso.
This is the third “every five year” calculation, and this year El Paso Water is seeking community input, God bless them. I imagine that EPWater is trying to raise public awareness to the way ratepayers are getting screwed by developers.
And it’s not just El Paso Water ratepayers that are getting screwed by all that sprawl. If you pay an electric bill you are also subsidizing all that development out there on the edges of the city. You’re paying for new electrical distribution lines even if your neighborhood has had electric lights for a hundred years.
But don’t expect a lot to happen. Developers have been making political donations to our elected officials for years, and politics is transactional. Even our favorite City Council Representatives are on the developers’ teat.
If you don’t have $2,500 to throw at someone’s campaign fund, you can always vote. You can complain.
That’s what I do.
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