Great. Just what our household needs. More money going out with so much less coming in. I've lived in Mountain View my entire life (over 50 years). I've only gotten a 30 cent total raise an hour in 3 years with company I currently work for. This is after losing a decent paying job to outsourcing 5 years ago and now working for what I did 20 years ago (don't even bring home $1000/mo right now working full-time). 25% of my monthly take-home pay goes towards medical coverage just for myself. Meaning it takes 3 months pay a year just to cover my medical deductions. My spouse is well past retirement age and still working out of need. It's no wonder we're in the process right now of packing up and getting ready to sell and leave the area. We love Mountain View and the Bay Area, but sadly we just can't afford to live here anymore and reading something like this just confirms it even more.

I agree. Up to an 8% raise in rates outpaces inflation and raises for the 99%. Why not subsidize Mountain View taxpayer utility rates with tax revenue or some of those Shoreline revenues? Oh, that's right, that money is reserved for pension liabilities of public workers.

Something is wrong with the supply/demand here -- if MV paid extra because we didn't use enough water (less demand), then why are prices going up?

Blame the workers if you want, but this is all a result of the recession that we have now been in for 5 years. The economy did not crash because of pension funds, the economy crashed because of irresponsible Wall Street bankers and their ilk -- none of whom are being held accountable for the suffering they have caused for nearly all people nationwide. I don't know of any local governments that are faring well right now (pension fund or not), outside of Washington DC.

Anyway, it is weird that it costs more to use less water. Could we get a good explanation on why this is?

So tell me Sabrina, are you ok with public workers retiring one day and going back to work as public workers the next day?

Ok.. I'm just going to throw this out there.

If we're going to have to pay extra money for not using enough water, how about they just turn a valve someplace and dump the water into the bay? Turn the sprinklers on in the parks.. let kids play in the fire hydrants.

Trust me, it's not that hard people. We have morons running the city.

Why not bottle the water and sell it like other bottled water and use the profits to lower utility bills. Our water is excellent right from the tap,in other locals it is cloudy and taste funny.

Otto Maddox nailed it: start wasting water, in a big way.

I can't afford to waste water even at the current prices, but I support all of you in your efforts...backyard hoses fixing the problem one by one and recharging the ground water as well.
I really think the city council needs a flush next election...non low flow.

There's a couple of things going on, when it comes to water:

1. Since Mountain View bought water in bulk, not unlike you shopping at Costco, it paid a lower unit price with the expectation that we may need that water for future growth. As regrettable as it is that the City ended up paying for water we didn't use, the alternative would have been worse: Not having enough water to support growing needs would have meant either drastic water rationing or buying water on the spot market, which would undoubtedly cost alot more than what we're paying now.

2. The general increase in water rates is due to many elements, including the maintenance and repairs needed for our water infrastructure, like Hetch Hetchy, and also because the demand for water is increasing. This increase is being seen by many neighboring cities, including Mountain View, since we all get our water from the same sources.

3. To put this all in perspective, relative to the rest of the country, we don't pay more than average for water: Boston being almost twice as high and Vegas being half as low.

Web Link

Trying to waste water in order to recoup costs seems a short-sighted thing to do. We should be constantly developing new ways to save water, as growth and climate change may increase the need for potable water, while decreasing the availability of it.

Developing ways to save water is what got us into this mess, that, and morons in the City Council. I agree, it's time for a flush. What kind of idiot would agree to a contract that says we have to pay for water that we can't resell if don't need it? Like someone else said, there are cities that aren't getting all the water they need, we should be able to sell it to them, and let SFPUC pocket the difference in price. Such stupidity, it'd depressing.

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