Tag Archives: Chico sewer rate increase 2026

Tomorrow night council to discuss their sewer rate scam. Staff admits – that original sewer rate proposal was their way of getting existing users to pay forward for years and years of development.

15 Jun

Tomorrow night city council will revisit the sewer rate increase. I read the report, available here

https://chico-ca.granicus.com/MetaViewer.php?view_id=2&event_id=1196&meta_id=103624

Here’s the problem – developers don’t want to pay their own way, they want existing neighborhoods to be stuck for their cost of providing whole new parts of town with sewer lines. Read this excerpt.

Sanitary Sewer Master Plan (SSMP) identifies all projects necessary to support buildout of the City per
the General Plan. If new development occurs and a new pipeline is installed to serve only that
development, then that financial responsibility is completely put on the new development. However, when a new development occurs that relies partially on existing sewer mains that do not have sufficient capacity, then that sewer main needs to be upsized. When this occurs, the existing users benefit from a brand-new pipe and are therefore responsible for a portion of the newly installed pipe cost. This is deemed “Sanitary Sewer Master Plan Projects – Existing User Contribution”.

So, when a developer wants to flop a new subdivision in your neighborhood, and the sewer main has to be upsized to provide for that new subdivision, existing users have to pay for it? Even though it would not have been necessary if not for that subdivision? Wow, a brand new pipe! For that they wanted to raise sewer rates by 150%. For developers.

But they hit the beehive with a stick this time – finally. People who threw the mailed ballot assessment that changed us to a “volumetric” rate base came out of the wood work to bitch about this new increase. So staff came up with some new suggestions. They admitted that they based that rate increase on the “assumption… that buildout will occur over the next 20 years.” Assumptions, assumptions – always making asses out of you and me! After the tar and feathers committee came out of nowhere they offer to “extend” their assumption to 40 years or just have it “removed completely”.

My dad would say, they just pulled that rate increase figure out of their ass-umptions.

Our council and staff are afraid of developers. They threaten that if they can’t get us to pay they will have to issue bonds (another way of getting us to pay).

If no fees are collected for this purpose, the risk is that a developer will propose a new development with
their share of sewer costs, and the City will not have funds available to support the existing user
contribution. In this case, the City could reimburse the developer or pursue debt financing to provide the
City’s existing user share of costs.

That original sewer rate proposal was their way of getting existing users to pay forward for years and years of development. We’re not paying the real cost of delivering our own water, or carrying away our sewage – we’re paying for the next wave of overdevelopment.

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Bill Smith: Before I start paying three times my current sewer bill, I would like to take a look at current city employees’ salaries… Thanks for asking, Bill!

26 Mar

NOTE: As of today (4/5) this letter (sent 3/25) has not been printed in the ER. Nobody has answered Bill Smith, including Wolcott/ER staff. I guess I’ll wait a full two weeks (this Thursday 4/9) and send it again!

I was laying the Sunday ER (3/15) under my cat dishes when I noticed a letter from Bill Smith, asking about the sewer bill and the pensions. Short and to the point!

Before I start paying three times my current sewer bill, I would like to take a look at the current city employees’ salaries, what their anticipated retirement will be, and what already retired city employees are drawing in retirement. Where can I see this? — Bill Smith, Chico 

Thanks Bill, good questions. I’ll answer here. It took Wolcott 10 days to print my last letter, sent on the 14th, even though I saw letters that had obviously been written AFTER mine, and printed within a day or two. Neither Wolcott or his usual pile of dipshits bothered to answer Bill Smith. The paper is in trouble, but I’m going to continue to send letters, please do same.

Bill Smith (3/15) asked about city salaries, anticipated pensions, and what retirees are already drawing in retirement. He asked where he could get this information.

There are two sites that provide this information. The secretary of state has “public pay,” at https://gcc.sco.ca.gov/Reports/Cities/Cities.aspx Transparent California is provided by the Nevada Policy Research Institute, in a joint venture with the California Policy Center, available at https://transparentcalifornia.com/salaries/2024/chico/

Both sites depend on public agencies, like the city of Chico, to provide this information. Because of delays in compliance, the figures are two years out of date, but accurate. You will find records dating back years, with annual salary increases, as well as benefits packages and total compensation.

Transparent California also figures the employee’s personal pension deficit, using pay and years of service. Employees pay between 5 and 11% toward their own pensions (70 – 90% of their highest year’s pay), the rest rides on the market and ends up on the backs of the taxpayers.

Please come to chicotaxpayers.com to join the conversation.

Juanita Sumner, Chico CA

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Oh shit! The sewer rate hike is worse than I thought!

8 Mar

Well, since I wrote that last post and sent my letter off to the Enterprise Record, I received a Finance Committee agenda regarding the sewer rate hike discussion, scheduled for last Wednesday. The agenda report said they were trying to decide between phasing the rate hike in over 5 years, or just sticking it to us all at once. I was not able to attend the meeting. Judging from a letter I saw in the ER (which ran prior to mine, which is odd because it was sent after the meeting, but whatever…), they decided to stick it to us – the writer claimed they will be raising the monthly fee to $98, not the $38 I had read in an earlier report.

Yup. Remember the Great Sewer Tax Heist of 2023?

Sewer rate increase hearing set for Tuesday (1/17/23) – if you haven’t mailed your protest get it in soon or attend the hearing

I hope you learned your lesson to check your mail carefully, because a lot of people threw those away as junk mail, and now here we are. Yup,  this is a permanent tax, allowing for an annual increase without any further notice or hearings. Where do you think that money goes? Don’t expect improvements in your neighborhood anytime soon – right now, the city is busy hooking Paradise up to our sewer plant, and getting ready to tear up Downtown streets for a completely new sewer system.

Spend much time in Paradise? Been Downtown lately? Be sure to use the toilet, cause you’re paying for it.

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