County Commission Approves Water Bill Hike to Fund Maintenance and Improvements

BRADENTON – Following a presentation by Manatee County Utilities Director Mike Gore and staff at Tuesday's Manatee County Commission meeting, commissioners voted 5-2 in favor of a water and wastewater rate increase in order to fund needed maintenance and improvements to the county's water treatment services.

The increase, which does not include solid waste, will amount to around $2 per month and begin in October. The county contracted with an outside consultant to perform a study and the result was a recommendation for the increase to fund such items as a new microfiltration system and repairs to the county's reservoir at Lake Manatee.

County administrator Scott Hopes urged board members to strongly consider adopting the recommended ordinance, explaining that these were enterprise funds and not a general budget item paid for by property taxes.

"I appreciate the comments with regards to lowering taxes for the taxpayers," Hopes told the board, "but I just want to remind, especially the newer members, these are enterprise funds. This is a business operation that not only has to fund its cost of producing the service, but it has to fund all of the future maintenance, enhancements, and improvements to the system, and the mere fact that the rates have stayed stable for four years ... and are still substantially lower than our surrounding counties. I really ask your support for this because we're going to have to go out to bond in order to make the future investments that are needed to keep up with the growth. This is not taxpayer-funded. This is users buying products that we produce, which allows us to lower taxes because of the efficiencies that we have throughout the district."

Commissioners James Satcher and Vanessa Baugh dissented. Satcher said that he was disappointed that other conservative commissioners were not joining him in voting against what he called a tax and said that he felt the increase would be disproportionately borne by those least able to pay.

Baugh said that while she appreciated the presentation made by staff and the arguments for increasing funding, she didn't feel the timing was right, especially given COVID's impact on the economy.

"These are mutually exclusive things," said Commissioner George Kruse, who often votes with Satcher and Baugh. "This isn't a tax."

Kruse praised staff for not coming back "year after year," asking for increases, and said that what amounted to about a three and a half percent increase this year seemed very reasonable, noting that none of the anti-tax commissioners made the same argument when the board recently voted to increase the sheriff's budget. Kruse said that such items were "core services" and needed to be fully funded.

Commissioner Carol Whitmore noted that a previous break in the dam at Port Manatee wound up costing around $15-18 million to repair, making the argument that it would cost more later if the investment in infrastructure was not made.