OUR VIEW: Why we need these utility rate hikes (vote in poll)

April 24, 2010 9:00 PM

The Gazette has a long and proud tradition of protecting Colorado families and individuals from financial pilfering by collectivists who are eager to raise taxes and fees for shiny things that pop into their heads. We do that for two main reasons:

1. We believe individuals are best at managing the fruits of their own production and innovation; and

2. We believe the community is best poised to afford important investments when it avoids wasting money on every want-to-have that comes along.

The Southern Delivery System isn’t a want-to-have. It’s a must-have. It will benefit this community in the near future and for generations to come. It is essential to providing water for future economic development and residential growth.

Colorado Springs’s water rates doubled in the 1960s, in order to help pay for the Homestake Pipeline, which delivers West Slope water to Aurora and Colorado Springs. Without it, Colorado Springs — one of the 50 most populous cities in the country with more than 400,000 residents — could not have grown beyond 200,000 residents.

Employers could not have moved here. Most of our schools, businesses and urban amenities would not be here today.

The billion-dollar Southern Delivery System, which will deliver water we own and store in Pueblo Reservoir, cannot go forward without water rate hikes customers of Colorado Springs Utilities have been told were on the horizon for years. Tuesday, the Colorado Springs Utilities Board of Directors will be asked to approve a 12 percent rate hike for 2011 and an additional 12 percent increase for 2012. The 2011 increase will cost ratepayers about $4.40 each month, and in 2012 the average bill will increase by another $5.

A $9.40 increase in routine overhead for a household or small business can be a big deal, especially in difficult times. The Gazette’s editorial board does not take lightly our support of this increase. We do not enjoy advocating an increase in anyone’s living expense.

(Please vote in poll to the lower right in red type. Must vote to see results. Thanks!)

We support this increase because we are convinced the Southern Delivery System will facilitate prosperity in the community and the surrounding region in the near future, and for generations to come. Much of the money invested to build the pipeline will circulate back into the community quickly, as it will create about 700 jobs by 2014.

We support this with a sincere belief that rate increases, to invest in the pipeline, will come back to a majority of ratepayers with significant dividends in the form of a better economy, better jobs, and a better housing market for Colorado Springs. Members of the City Council, please approve this sound investment in our future.

— Wayne Laugesen, editorial page editor, for the editorial board

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