Charlotte County weighs 3.5% indexing, connection-fee increases as staff readies public hearing

Charlotte County commissioners on June 19 heard a consultant presentation and staff recommendations to index water and wastewater rates and raise connection fees as part of a multi-scenario rate model intended to fund a 10-year capital improvement program.

Murray Hamilton, project manager with consulting firm Raftelis, told the Board the county’s base case assumed a minimum 2.5% annual adjustment but that staff’s alternative (Scenario 2) pairs proposed connection-fee increases with a 3.5% minimum annual index. Under that alternative, Hamilton said the county’s modeled capital funding capacity would rise from roughly $1.0 billion to about $1.4 billion over the next decade and borrowing capacity would increase from about $181 million to $400 million. Hamilton said implementing the proposed connection fees alone would be worth roughly $100 million toward the 10-year program, and raising the index from 2.5% to 3.5% accounted for roughly $250 million of the additional capacity.

Hamilton gave example per-connection figures used in the scenarios: on the water side a hypothetical illustrative shift from $6,792 to $9,075 per connection and for wastewater from $11,201 to $14,802. He also noted another survey-based “typical equivalent residential connection” figure…