Fall River council holds rates steady after votes to shift $1.36 million from enterprise indirects

Fall River City Council voted on March 1 to reduce planned transfers and indirect costs in the city’s water and sewer enterprise budgets, a move councilors said would hold water and sewer rates at current levels for the coming year.

The council approved an amendment that reduces the water appropriation by $527,000 and the sewer appropriation by $832,000. The amended totals adopted during the meeting were $16,044,442 for water and $31,953,387 for sewer. Councilors cast roll-call votes on each amended appropriation and adopted both budgets as amended.

Why it matters: the council debated whether to raise rates to cover rising costs or to absorb some enterprise overhead in the general fund for one year. Advocates for keeping rates level said relieving ratepayers this year would give the council time to craft a longer-term policy on indirect-cost chargebacks; opponents warned the move would push the burden into the general fund and could require larger increases later.

The meeting opened with public comments focused on the proposal. Kelly Buchanan told the council, “I’m gonna…