Jeff: Raise the TWW rates? Cry me a river Robin Vaughn
Trenton Councilwoman Robin Vaughn hasn’t exactly been making friends during her time on Trenton City Council, and for that, I congratulate her. Politics should be dirty and ugly and mean. So good for her for keeping things bonkers.
But when she took to Facebook the other day and called for a rate increase for Trenton Water Works customers in the four suburban towns the utility serves, well, this suburbanite sat up and took notice.
“Governor Murphy only gives Trenton $6MM in Transitional Aid,” Vaughn wrote. “Time to raise Trenton Water Works rate on our Township customers. Demand taxes from State Buildings.”
Three things here …
1) I agree about the state buildings thing. The state should not be exempt from paying property taxes. They should pay the same as everyone else.
2) The capitalization errors in Vaughn’s post are driving me insane. Listen up people: Just because it’s social media doesn’t mean the rules of English go out the window, m’kay?
Lastly, and most importantly …
3) Raise the rates on the township customers because Murphy is only giving $6 million in transitional aid? That’s bananas, for various reasons. Looks like I’m going to need a secondary list. It’s bananas because …
1) One has nothing to do with the other. Might as well say the city needs to raise TWW rates on suburbanites because the moon was looking at me funny last night.
2) The state is actually giving $16 million in aid, $10 million of which is a loan which will be forgiven once that $10 million is legislatively approved, thereby making the $10 million boost a line item on budgets moving forward. (Or something like that. Bottom line, the city is getting $16 million, not $6 million.)
And lastly, and most importantly,
3) Imagine someone wants to stab you. Now imagine they’re going to attempt the feat with a wet sock. That’s about how much power Vaughn - or any Trenton official - has when it comes to raising the rates on TWW customers.
Know this: The towns TWW services - Ewing, Hamilton, Hopewell, and Lawrence (and, of course, Trenton) are on the hook to be served by TWW. There’s no escaping that fact. If you live in one of those towns and want water, it’s coming from TWW. But when it comes to raising rates because why the hell not?
“The Board of Public Utilities would never allow that to happen,” said Kevin Nerwinski, the Lawrence Township manager. “Any rate increase would have to be approved and justified through hearings and scrutiny by the BPU. And that’s why rates aren’t skyrocketing.”
Nerwinski went on to explain that when a utility wants to raise rates, they have to provide “substantial documentation and support” as to why they’re doing it. And in case you haven’t figured it out by now, just because a councilwoman says so doesn’t count toward “substantial documentation.”
“If Trenton puts millions of dollars into infrastructure, sure, then there will probably be a rate increase, and it would be justified,” Nerwinski said. “But for that councilwoman to say that now is silliness. The money they’re spending now is not justifying a rate increase.”
But one day, the city probably will spend the money needed to justify a rate increase. This is an old utility, and will need serious work at some point. And honestly, as a TWW customer, I’d rather they spend the money now. Go ahead, TWW. Raise my rates and fix all the issues. I’d love to trust the system again and stop lugging gallons of Poland Spring around ShopRite.
Having said all that, and despite the much-publicized woes at TWW, Nerwinski believes things are on the upswing at the utility.
“All the information I receive as a municipal manager shows me things are definitely getting better and we’ll get to a point in a year or so where we won’t be thinking about the water,” he said.
That’s reassuring. I’m still gonna go with the Poland Spring, but still: Reassuring.
In the meantime, Robin Vaughn and rant and rave all she wants, but TWW customers need to know this: Rates aren’t going up until if and when the city decides to put money into the aging system.