A contingent from the Baltimore City Council today called for the city to share the calculus behind behind yet another planned water utility rate increase, one day before Baltimore’s Board of Estimates is scheduled to vote on a three-year, 30 percent water and sewer rate hike for city dwellers and businesses.
“For the public to have faith in our water system, we need transparency and we need accountability,” First District Councilman Zeke Cohen said outside City Hall. “People need to trust that their tax dollars are going to the right place.”
Joined by colleagues Isaac “Yitzy” Schleifer (5th District), Bill Henry (4th District), Kristerfer Burnett (8th District) and Shannon Sneed (13th District), as well as water-rights advocates, Cohen called on Department of Public Works Director Rudy Chow to first secure an independent study of the agency’s proposed increases, announced in December, before they go to the spending board. The study should mathematically justify the planned rate bumps, they said.
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