Macon Water Authority board mulls rate increase

Water in Bibb County may get more expensive next year as the Macon Water Authority board considers a rate increase.

The authority needs to complete about $250 million in upgrades to its facilities by 2030. The bulk of it relates to deferred maintenance. A consultant recommended the authority board increase rates to help pay for the upgrades. 

In an hourslong work session Tuesday, Jason Bodwell of Jacobs Solutions, a professional services firm, presented options to the board, including proposed rate increases of 9%, 5% and 3%.

The authority will use cash and bond money to complete the work, but the ratio of how much it will finance and how much it will pay outright with cash is something the board will have to decide. That decision will impact rates.

Bodwell recommended the authority increase the current rate by 3% and use debt funding from a $161 million bond plus $88 million in cash to pay for the upgrades.

The other options he presented included funding the upgrades with a 5% rate increase plus a $136 million bond with $113 million in cash. A third option was to increase the rate by 9% and use a $199 million bond with $50 million in cash.

Even with the proposed rate increases, Bodwell said Macon is “still on the bottom end of the scale” for rates when compared with similar municipal water authorities in Georgia.

“I want to make sure that we’re looking at all sides of this,” MWA board member Elaine Lucas said. “For a lot of people, just those few little dollars make a difference.”

Board members Desmond Brown and Valerie Wynn were absent.

As Bodwell presented a history of the authority’s rates, MWA CEO Ron Shipman noted the authority has increased rates seven times over the past 15 years. This year, the base charges for water and sewer service each increased from $9.75 to $10.73.

When Melody reporters requested water and sewer rates in April, the authority responded it would take between 15-20 hours to gather that information and estimated it would cost the newsroom between $375-$500.

Rate structure changes considered

The authority board is considering a change to how it calculates water usage that could also mean higher bills for industrial customers.

“We treat our business just like we do our residential customers,” Shipman said. “We don’t treat anybody any differently.”

At present, residents and industries are billed at the same rates; however, the authority is looking to restructure its rate schedule so that large users pay more for using more water.

“I like the idea of the tiered system,” board member Bill Howell said. “I only want to have to go through this one time with the general public talking about what we’re doing and why we’re doing it. They’re going to see a rate increase either way. Some won’t see a rate increase.”

In addition to a tiered structure for customers based on water usage, the authority is looking to change how it measures units of water.

Bodwell explained most municipal water authorities define a unit of water as 1,000 gallons, but MWA uses centum cubic feet, or CCF, which equals 748 gallons.

Shipman said he and Bodwell decided to “put a pin in it” and take it up later, but some on the board, including Howell, expressed interest in changing from CCF to gallons concurrently with the rate increase.

“I think that switch from 748 gallons to 1,000 gallons is not going to be much — it’s just a systematic issue,” Shipman said. “We’ve got to make sure it works properly.”

Shipman described the water system as “a car or an airplane that never stops — that has to be maintained, that operates 365 days a year. And it’s the only car we have or it’s the only airplane we have. We have to fix it while we’re driving, and we have to fix it while we’re flying.”

The next MWA meeting is set for Oct. 2 at 4 p.m. in the second floor board room at 790 Second St.

Editor’s note: The rate history chart was updated with new information.