Letter to the Editor

Editor:
In response to neighborhood groups and homeowners throughout San Francisco who protested the City's new, hidden "family tax" embedded in the proposed tiered water rate structure adopted by the SF Public Utilities Commission (SFPUC) on May 8, and after a SF Board of Supervisor's committee hearing on the matter, the SFPUC withdrew its water rate schedule. In its place, the commission adopted a new rate schedule on June 12.

The original rate schedule imposed at three-tier structure on water rates, whereby the more water a household uses, the ratepayer would be billed at higher and higher rates. This tiered-rate structure unfairly targeted only single-family homes, not apartments. It burdened families who must use more water simply to accommodate the needs of multiple family members.

In adopting its new water rate structure, the commission rescinded the third tier of rates. In its place, the commission imposed a new two-tier water rate structure. In addition, the commission left the particularly burdensome three-tier residential wastewater rate structure unchanged.

On June 19, SF Supervisor Sean Elsbernd introduced a resolution rejecting the water and wastewater rate structures in response to the neighborhood groups within the Coalition for San Francisco Neighborhoods and the West of Twin Peaks Central Council, who continue to demand that the entire water and wastewater tiered rate structures be thrown out and replaced with a uniform volume rates for every residential user. This way, the more a household consumes, the more it pays, but at the same rate as every other residential household, large or small.

Elsbernd's legislation will be heard at the Government Audit and Oversight Committee on July 9. The hearing is at City Hall, Room 250, at 10 a.m. I urge everyone to contact your supervisor and tell them that you support this legislation.
Joan Girardot
Coalition for San Francisco Neighborhoods