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Regular City Council Meeting <br />June 16, 2003 <br />Page 11 <br /> <br />other place discussing bills and that whatever the bill, they thought it is too high. <br />Mr. Anderson said his information was of all city customers residential, <br />commercial, industrial or whatever, all of them rolled into together. In March <br />of 2003, there were 8,547 combined water and sewer bills (this excludes trash <br />pick up) that were $50.00 or less that is 84.13% of accounts including industrial. <br />There were another 1,220 that fell between $51.00 and $100.00, which represents <br />12%. He said those two top category represent 96.13% of all of the city's <br />customers and they had a bill of $100.00 or less for water and sewer and that is <br />in a cool weather month. He said in August 2002, which is dry and hot as it can <br />get, and in the zero to $50.00 range 7,275 account or 71.63% of the bills were <br />$50.00 or less. He said the range from $5.00 to $100.00 there were 2,143 <br />customers, or 21.10%, and those two categories represent 92.73%. Mr. <br />Anderson said if you really put it in perspective and look and see what they really <br />are compared to the other utility bills, he did not think these were exorbitant <br />rates. <br /> <br />Mr. Anderson said that Mr. Stowe mentioned the TML Survey and over the past <br />two years, TML surveys of 673 cities indicate that water rates have increased <br />11.93% and sewer rates have increased 9.9%, so, the City of Paris is not the only <br />city facing this type situation, and as Mr. Malone said in the past no one wants <br />to do it. It is not the popular thing to do. <br /> <br />Councilman Plata said that sounds good, but here are the things that he looks at <br />when you talk about rate increases. You say this is not bad, then all of the other <br />utilities go up and you need to think about these people that are on a fixed <br />income. He advised that he is not saying that we do not need a rate increase, but <br />he would like to see about cutting fat out of the budget first, and then raise the <br />rates. <br /> <br />Mr. Anderson said he understands what Councilman Plata said, but he pointed <br />out that he always hears about people on a fixed income, and he said that he <br />does not know anyone that is on a strictly fixed income even if someone only has <br />social security checks as their only income, that is adjusted by the cost of living <br />by the Federal Government based on the inflation rate, so it is not really fixed. <br /> <br /> <br />