Yearly 5% Rate Hike On Your Water Bill On It's Way

Something to remember for everyone who lives in Henry County and that is our water prices will be going up 5% in November.  Every year now for some time the Henry County Water and Sewerage Authority has raised automatically our water rates by 5% each year.  Why do the rates have to continue at this rate?  For example: If you are paying currently $40 a month it will go up $2.  Now that doesn’t sound like a lot, but in time that is a good deal of money especially when there are about 50,000 residential customers in the county alone.  At this rate the HCWSA is getting a larger increase than those who are retired and disabled in the county.  The COLA is seriously lagging for those people and even for those who are still working.  Many of them have not had a raise in years.  And that includes many workers for the county and the hospital.  Yet that steady 5% increase is there for the HCWSA and no one challenges that increase.  Maybe the county should take another look at the policies of that department that has taken own its own governmental base.  Water is an essential part of life. If you don’t have water in your body you will die.  That is why the county should see that the people are not unjustly treated for the price of that water.  If you cannot afford it they turn your water off.  And then that will put a sentence of death upon the person they have cut off especially if they have lost a job and cannot afford it.  No part of government should have the right to decide who lives and dies because of the lack of water.  Keep that in mind the next time you go to the polls to vote.


Update We have learned that the Water Authority Board Suspended the 5% increase for this year.

The Staff at the Henry County Community News.