How out of Balance are Polk City Utility Rates?

One of the issues that Polk County Commissioners had at their September 15th meeting was how the Polk County Residents reliant on Polk City Utilities for water and or sewer were being charged much more than other Polk County Residents getting their utility services from other providers.  Per the Polk County Commissioners, one of the stipulations of the Mt. Olive Utility deal in 2008 was that Polk City would need to treat these customers just as fairly as other residents within other areas of Polk County receiving similar services.  Obviously, that has not been happening.  Below is a table detailing how equal amounts of water and sewer compare apples to apples between current Polk City Utility rates and Polk County Utility rates.  These rates were taken from actual rate charts from Polk County Utilities using the new rates effective October 1st, 2010, reflecting a 5% increase.  The Polk City Utility rates came from actual rate charts with the effective date of July 25, 2010. Water rate comparisons are on the top.  Sewer rates are on the bottom.  For customers on both water and sewer, these figures would need to be added together to get the total fees charged. 

This is the same sheet that was handed out to the public at the petition signing on Sept. 11th & 12th.  Keep in mind these are IN CITY rates, so the issues sited here about the Mt. Olive Utility system when speaking of OUTSIDE CITY LIMIT customers is even worse since these customers have an additional 25% upcharge added to these rates listed here.