City Utility Water Rates

Next month City Utilities will raise our water rates by another 3%. Last night I witnessed 5 people speak out in favor of another round of rate increases to the city council. If approved by the city council in two weeks, we will have another round of 3 annual rate increases of 8% starting in October of 2010. According to CU this will result in an average increase of $1.93 per month for residential users in Springfield each year. 3 of these people were with the Watershed Comittee of the Ozarks, who will, once again, receive their funding from CU if the rate increase is passed.
I don't understand why CU is projecting less water usage for next year than we used this year. Maybe it is because we now have a local irrigation consultant who can show people how to reduce their water usage for turf and landscape applications. This has been a very wet summer this year, and those of us smart enough to be using rain sensors have used very little water for turf irrigation.
Revenue from the increases is expected to generate $7.5 million by 2013 for the water utility with revenues being used for daily infrastructure improvements and repairs.