San Marcos City Council OKs Budget, Utility Increases

1. http://impactnews.com/austin-metro/san-marcos-buda-kyle/san-marcos-city-council-oks-budget%2C-utility-increases/

2. Category of Problem/Issue: Taxes/Rising Cost of Living 

3. Level of Problem: Local

4. This article concerns: New policy passed to increase water and property taxes for San Marcos residents

5. Importance/affect on families/individuals: The city will be increasing their water revenues by 4% in an effort to increase residents' desire to use this precious resource more conservatively. When the new policy takes effect October 1st, customers will notice anywhere from a 5-10% increase to their monthly water bill (contingent on how much water the household consumes).

6. Personal input: I think this legislation is a good one to have. Water is scarce and needs to be used conservatively; unfortunately the only way to change habits of the general population is to raise the price of the good or service. I think the City of San Marcos is very smart to increase their revenues on water because it is something that we all need to have available to us, if it is being wasted now, we are not thinking far enough ahead! Any groundwork we can start implementing will help tremendously in the future with acclimating the masses to a more environmentally conscious lifestyle. For years now, Ive been telling my friends and family that water is way too cheap---I say this because I see it wasted too much! In the article, it was mentioned that under the previous rate structure, the city's utility customers did not pay for the first 2,000 gallons of water per month because it was built into the minimum monthly charge. This further drives home the fact that before this legislation, there really was no incentive to conserve our water usage. I know also that San Marcos is growing fast and the city has desires to keep making large infrastructure improvements to better serve it's residents...but with a tight budget, concessions have to be made. I dont feel that the added taxes on water will affect most family budgets or quality of lifestyle and the positive outcomes resulting from this tax increase outweigh the negative points.