The County of Kern is taking the City of Bakersfield to court, claiming your sewer bill includes charges that are both illegal and improperly calculated. Among other things, the county claims Bakersfield is violating the state constitution.
Under the city's sewer rate increase adopted last month, residential households that currently pay $247 a year will pay $875 a year by 2030.
“The county is just really concerned with ensuring that tax payers are paying a fair amount,” said Kern County District 1 Supervisor Phillip Peters.
The county's lawsuit against the city claims two things: that the city improperly included stormwater system costs in its calculation. And, it claims the rate structure does not proportionately reflect the actual cost of sewer service.
But the increase won’t just hit city customers. Some 600 county residents tied into the city’s system will also have to pay the same higher rates.
“We have a lot of residents that are on fixed incomes, we have seniors, we have families, even our businesses you know this is a difficult time and I think we need to be looking at what we can do to make it a little more affordable for them,” said Peters.
Despite public opposition, the Bakersfield City Council voted last month to raise the sewer rates to make what it said were much-needed upgrades to its aging wastewater treatment plant.
The lawsuit is asking a court to invalidate the city's rate increase and bar the city from collecting new rates.
“It’s not that we disagree that the city needs sewer infrastructure I mean that’s incredibly important to our community certainly but we believe that there’s more fiscally responsible ways to do it,” said Peters.
23ABC reached out to Bakersfield city officials for comment, but were told they could not comment on pending litigation.
Unless a judge steps in, Bakersfield’s new sewer rates, including the disputed stormwater costs, kick in July 1.
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