Rockville Centre lowers water rates — a drop

When Rockville Centre Comptroller Michael Schussheim asked the Board of Trustees to approve his changes to the village's water rates for the upcoming year, everyone at the May 25 meeting seemed shocked. Some gasped. There was even applause.

Schussheim proposed lowering the rates by 5 percent. And the trustees agreed, although just barely, adopting Schussheim's recommendation in a 3-2 vote.

The decrease may seem confusing, coming less than a year after the board voted to increase water rates by 17.5 percent. That increase came last September, after the village said that less usage during the summer forced it to make up a shortfall in the water department budget of $600,000.

"I was seeking to recover it over a nine-month period," Schussheim said of the shortfall. "If the 17.5 percent increase is implemented over a full 12-month period, it's going to produce over $600,000."

The new rates, which go into effect Sept. 1, would lower the average water bill to about $390 a year — a decrease of around $20. The village has seen a decline in water use in recent years. Usage for the year ending in April 2010 was approximately 1.1 billion gallons. The high for the last decade was 1.45 billion gallons.

The two opposing votes were cast by Trustees David Krasula and Edward Oppenheimer. Neither was opposed to lowering the rates that villagers pay for services, but both felt that, for such a nominal amount, the money could be put to better use.

"I felt that, given that relatively small sum of money, if we took all of those $20 and consolidated them, it would assist us in terms of not having to borrow money, or borrow as much money down the line, and we'd become a pay-as-you-go operation," said Krasula.

Oppenheimer, an accountant, offered similar reasons for opposing the decrease. "I wanted to make sure that there would be an appropriate amount of cash on hand to handle the emergencies that may or may not occur, like a water main break or something along those lines," said Oppenheimer. "These are things that are possible. I just feel from my formal [accounting] training that it would be more appropriate to hold onto it."

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