Published: June 05, 2009 11:57 pm      

A 68% increase? You’ve got to be kidding

So you go to the grocery store to pick up that gallon of milk.

Or you get your car insurance bill in the mail.

Or maybe it could be that it’s time to pay your cell phone bill.

It doesn’t really matter what the scenario, just imagine it was time to pay for something that you budget every month.

Then what if it went up 68 percent?

That’s exactly what Iowa-American Water wants to do to residential Clinton district water users — to take their bills up another 68 percent per billing period. If you are a commercial customer that would be even greater, to the tune of 77 percent.

Now go back to the original scenario above. In some cases, you can walk away from the item: Maybe you change your breakfast habits, get rid of the vehicle and walk or cancel the cell phone bill.

But in the case of water you are stuck —  you must drink it, bathe in it and wash your clothes. And in this case, there is nowhere to go to compare costs, there is only one provider and you have to pay what it charges.

It’s a disturbing notion, and one that turned out a large crowd Thursday night at the CCC Graphic Arts Technology Center for a public hearing in front of the water company, the Iowa Utilities Board, which will make the final decision by March 1 on whether the increase will occur; and the state Office of Consumer Advocate, which is an agency operating under the Iowa Attorney General’s Office and is charged with investigating the way the water company does business. The OCA checks to make sure companies without competition are using their funds judiciously and not overcharging. That office represents the people and will give its findings to the three-member IUB as it works toward making a decision.

Residents, business owners and government leaders had dozens of great questions Thursday night in front of those officials — everything from how can senior citizens afford any increase, let alone one that could potentially raise the rates that much; how any business would be able to afford continuing to do business here and why any would want to move into a town with those kinds of rates; and several more that targeted the way the water company does business, specifically, why Iowa-American Water can afford to pay dividends to stockholders if it needs so much money to pay its operating and facility upgrade costs.

To their credit, water company officials stayed calm even when the crowd pointedly asked questions about how much the CEO makes (around $150,000 annually), and when one resident tossed a flyer in the direction of CEO Brock Earnhardt when the resident disgustedly pointed out that the flyer, which he received with his water bill, had to do with the Quad-City district, not the Clinton district.

Those water company officials also answered each question, explaining that the request is being made — two years after the last hike was granted — in light of $10 million in recent investments here that include a water treatment facility that deals with fine sand and high radium levels and mandated work in the U.S. 30 construction area.

They pointed out that such a request can only be made after work is completed, not saved up beforehand. They explained that the company must pay dividends to shareholders, who are providing funding for the company and must see a return on their investments or the company will face seeing that funding stream dry up. They also answered questions about why their chemical and electrical costs are going up, one of the additional needs they listed for the increase.

After watching the meeting play out, the answers come down to an increase in the cost of business for Iowa-American Water. Someone has to pay for those costs — and that someone is you.

But our question: Is that amount of increase really necessary?

We don’t debate that the costs of doing business, no matter what that business happens to be, are going up. We feel that pain here at the Herald as well.

But like one resident said at the meeting, we as a business couldn’t increase our costs to the customer that much and still be in business.

We believe that Iowa-American Water needs to take a serious look at what it is asking residents to pay and we are joining the Clinton City Council and the Clinton Regional Development Corp. in their stance, detailed in formal resolutions, that the increase request should be rejected.

After all, other businesses have had to adjust by decreasing staffing levels, having unpaid days off, cutting costs. Those factors, as well as the way the money is spent by the water company and how much in dividends is being paid to shareholders, must come under close scrutiny as well.

We know that the OCA will be investigating to make sure that we as consumers are not being gouged.

It all leads to the final question that we can’t wait to have answered: Are we?