They’re gonna struggle to maintain the system even with the increase. Who are they kidding?!

Crudely, if you take the population of Philadelphia 1.5m and compare it to the population of the United States 331m and extrapolate PWD's estimated budget increase ($75m) on that basis, you come up with a very crude figure, with nothing else considered of $16.5b budget increase for all water departments, everywhere in the US, very crude.

$16.5b that water departments want to pass on to Americans in what is sure to be trying times. Now think about what else the US government is spending billions on instead of US water infrastructure.

My bill is already at 90$ easy for a family of four. The increase is to pay for people that can't or won't. I remember when you were able to look up how much people owed, it was kinda fucked up to see honestly. Like people just don't pay.

And I know there's economic hardships etc, and I think the city is doing a better job at reducing the outstanding bills, but there's a good percentage of people who can pay but just don't. Again, because there's no consequences.

But they want to privatize the water department…… Imagine what would happen if that happened!

Lol fuck this city

Of course Jimbo the Drunk says its OK. Mentioned in the article but they always ask for more to get what they really want or as close to it as possible.

This is what happens when you repeatedly deny or reduce requests made in the past. Those costs don't go away, they just come more expensive later problems

Before raising everyone’s rates they should really consider collecting all the money owed to them from delinquent property owners. You shouldn’t be allowed to owe the water department $10k+ and still have your dam water on. Turn it off and get a lien. PWD should also be able to force a sals of the property for unpaid liens.

There is no consequence to not paying so people just don’t. The only consequence is that you have to pay when you sell the property, but these delinquents just pass the property on to a relative and keep the tally going. And they never turn it off.

Aqua in the burbs is way cheaper than PWD and maintains their infrastructure way better.

And also what a happens when you let properties rack up tens of thousands of dollars of unpaid bills with no consequence.

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but equity

Equity doesn’t mean that people who willingly choose not to pay their bills or sign up for any of the numerous assistance programs get a pass on consequences.

How many delinquent property owners out there with 10k+ owed to the department? Tried looking it up but couldn’t find anything and was just curious if there was a recent comptroller report or something that has the figure.

I’m not sure but you can look up all the unpaid liens the PWD has secured in Common Pleas court. There is a whole team of lawyers who just do that day in and day out so you know those numbers are significant.

It's wild how there's no competition but they want more money. This is absurd

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No it isn’t lol. Family of 5 paying over $200/month for water… in a good month. PA American Water is terrible. Aqua might be slightly better but won’t be cheaper than PWD.

Our water cost went significantly down when we moved from PGW to Aqua for the same usage. So maybe you are just using a lot of water. Perhaps you should evaluate your water usage. Maybe get more water efficient appliances. Showers not baths. Have a professional check for leaks. Etc.

Edit: confirmed with my partner - the city was $90+ a month and Aqua is less than $70 a month

My bill is always like $100+ and it’s only myself and my husband. This is ridiculous.

Isn’t it businesses that have these debts?

You act like they have real customer service. Trying to deal with them or the gas company is damn near impossible

It's just the 2 of us in my house, and we only pay about $65 per month in South Philly. You might have an issue somewhere, or you just use a lot of water.