Regulators got an earful Monday at the beginning of a week-long hearing by Tennessee American Water for a record high rate increase this spring.
Staff Photo by Dan Henry/The Chattanooga Times Free Press
Jim Folkner addresses the crowd in opposition to a proposed rate increase of close to 30 percent by Tennessee American Water during a hearing at the Hamilton County Courthouse early Monday morning.The private water company wants to raise overall rates by 30.5 percent to generate an additional $11.6 million.
If approved by the Tennessee Regulatory Authority, the extra money would go to offset rising energy, chemical and labor costs, toward making a series of system improvements and to ensure the utility remains profitable enough to attract private investment, company officials say.
City leaders, business managers and an NAACP leader criticized the utility for trying to hike water rates again while local consumers and businesses are still struggling to recover from the recession. The proposed increase would boost the water costs by an average of 15 cents per day, or $4.68 per month, for the typical residential customer.
“People will have to choose how many glasses of water they can drink with their medicine,” argued Joe Rowe, a spokesman for the NAACP who was critical of the increase’s impact on “poor people and people on fixed incomes.”