by UNCEFC | Nov 30, 2016 | Financial Management, Rates
For water and sewer utilities regulated by a state’s public utilities commission (PUC), mounting a rate case can be an expensive proposition. In fact, for some particularly small utilities, mounting a rate case can be more expensive than operating the utility for many...
by UNCEFC | Oct 12, 2016 | Financial Management, Rates
The Environmental Finance Center currently produces statewide water and wastewater rates dashboards for 12 states across the US. We collect a lot of data on water system finance and management to build these dashboards, and those data can tell interesting stories...
by Stacey Berahzer | Jun 20, 2016 | Financial Management
Water and Wastewater utilities receive “credit ratings” just as a private individual has a FICO® score. While organizations like the Fair Isaac Corporation calculate personal credit scores, for entities like local government utilities, the three groups that generate...
by Jeff Hughes | Jan 28, 2016 | Asset Management, Financial Management
As this blog is being written, water and community managers from across the country are talking about the water crisis that is occurring in Flint, Michigan. The City made a decision several years ago to discontinue buying Lake Huron water from Detroit in favor of an...
by Allison Perch | Dec 2, 2015 | Financial Management, Utility Management
What can a small town do when the financial health of its water system is at risk? This is the question that Stephanie Finch, the town clerk and treasurer for the Village of Magdalena in New Mexico, faced in early 2015. Magdalena has a population of 1,200 and its...
by Glenn Barnes | Nov 23, 2015 | Financial Management
At our workshops and through our discussions with water systems during technical assistance work, many water systems, in particular small systems, ask what seems like a simple question: “Are our rates right?” I suspect our initial answer is somewhat unsatisfying: “It...
