Suffolk water authority OKs 4.2% rate hike

The Suffolk Water Authority board voted unanimously Monday night to approve a 4.2 percent rate increase starting April 1, which would raise the average homeowner's bill about $13 a year.

The 5-0 vote came after a public hearing at the authority's headquarters in Oakdale.

The proposed rate hike -- the second in as many years -- will bring in an estimated $4.3 million in new revenue from SCWA's 389,000 customers. The agency serves 1.2 million of the county's 1.4 million people.

Authority officials say they need the rate increase to pay higher costs for pension and health insurance, 2 percent union salary raises and higher utility costs. Board officials say the increase is needed even though the authority has cut staff from 607 to 567, overtime by $800,000 over two years and the vehicle fleet by 30.

"LIPA rates are killing us and so are pension costs and health insurance premiums," authority chairman James Gaughran said before the meeting.

But Nick Caracappa, president of Local 393 of the Utility Workers of America, questioned how the SCWA could justify a rate increase at the same time it is delaying emergency work to save on overtime and cutting other services.

"We have been doing our part to curb expenses," said Caracappa, noting that workers have made concessions on health and workman's compensation.

The average authority customer, who uses about 160,000 gallons of water a year, pays $319 annually -- an amount authority officials said is among the lowest in the state. The rate increase will be in effect for the spring and summer, seasons when the authority pumps more than 75 percent of its 70 billion gallons a year.

For about 14,000 customers, who receive their water on a wholesale basis through municipal water districts such as Smithtown, St. James, Stony Brook and Greenport, the rate increase will not take effect until January 2013, because they pay for water on their property tax bills.

The pending rate increase also will not affect 10,000 former private water company customers in Shoreham and Bridgehampton, who already pay higher rates than other authority customers because of the cost SCWA incurred in taking over and upgrading the former private utilities.