Council to Consider Sewer Rate Increase

The City Council is set to consider an increase in the city’s sewer rate, “for properties serviced by New Britain-owned sanitary sewer lines.”

Under the proposal, the sewer rate would increase from $4.59 per hundred cubic feet of water used to $4.85 per hundred cubic feet.

The resolution before the Council says that the city Board of Public Works, all of the members of which were appointed by Republican Mayor Erin Stewart, proposed the change on May 17, 2021.

The change would appear to increase the sewer rate by 5.66%, a week after the Council approved a city budget that Stewart has promoted as lowering taxes by 2%.

Last year, the city increased the sewer rate by 3.85%, and the new proposed rate would appear to bring the sewer rates to 70.77% higher under the Stewart’s administration.

Stewart’s 2021-2022 Proposed Budget said that the sewer use fees fund the Sewer Operating Fund, the purpose for which is the city’s “sanitary and storm drain systems,” including, “180 miles of sanitary sewers,” as well as, “for the treatment of the sanitary sewers and operation of a pumping station.”

The proposal would also place, “a 70% surcharge on the in-town sewer user fee for properties serviced by New Britain-owned sanitary sewer lines but are not located within the City of New Britain.”

The resolution is on the agenda of the June 9, 2021 Council meeting.