Water authority workshops to look at rate hikes

The Southern Nevada Water Authority will have three public workshops next week on a proposal to raise rates to fund water infrastructure and pay down debt.

In a unanimous vote last month, the authority board selected three rate hike options to send to its member utilities for consideration.

Valley residents can get more information about the proposals and provide input during the workshops. They will be Monday at Sedway Middle School, 3465 Englestad St. in North Las Vegas; Wednesday at Becker Middle School, 9151 Pinewood Hills Drive in Las Vegas; and Thursday at Miller Middle School, 2400 Cozy Hill Circle in Henderson. All the sessions are from 5 to 8 p.m.

Public input will be accepted during the workshops. Comments can be submitted on the authority's website, www.snwa.com, through 6 p.m. Feb. 22.

The website also has a calculator so customers can figure out how the options might affect their bills.

The board is slated to pick one of the three options at its next meeting, scheduled for 9 a.m. Feb. 29 at the authority's headquarters on the seventh floor of the Molasky Corporate Center, 100 City Parkway in downtown Las Vegas.

Authority officials say they need to raise rates to replace revenue lost when the housing bubble burst and the economy crashed. The valley's wholesale water supplier used to depend on connection charges from new homes and businesses for nearly 60 percent of the money it used to build infrastructure and pay down construction debt. That revenue stream has all but run dry.

The first rate hike option would be to increase the monthly commodity charge from 30 cents to $1.06 per 1,000 gallons of water used. That translates to an average monthly increase of $9.88 for the typical single-family home, but residents could trim that by reducing water use.

The second option would establish a flat infrastructure surcharge based on the size of the customer's water line: $5 a month for the average home, $36 more for a small retail store and $2,200 for a large resort.

The third option is a blend of the first two and translates to $5.65 for most homes, $31.04 for small stores and $3,855 for large resorts in the first year.