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Board weighs 13% utility-rate proposal and $5.5M Main Street water project as staff model budget options
Summary
Director of public utilities presented a revised FY27 utilities budget showing a proposed 13% rate increase and the addition of Main Street and Forest Hill Avenue projects that raise the utilities capital plan and long-term rate needs. Supervisors debated timing of advertising, alternatives (general-fund transfer, targeted fee increases, a utilities overlay), and asked staff to prepare additional revenue scenarios ahead of the budget adoption process.
Gloucester County’s director of public utilities, Katie Lehi, briefed the Board of Supervisors on March 26 on a revised FY27 utilities budget that includes a proposed 13% increase in monthly water and sewer usage rates, added capital projects such as Main Street, and schedule options for a public hearing.
Lehi told the board the revised proposed utilities budget is about $16,880,000, reflecting newly added projects and an estimated $935,000 revenue transfer from a proposed meals tax. She said the county has added a state dam-safety grant and that Main Street Phase 1 is now estimated at about $5.5 million; later phases were estimated at roughly $1.8 million and $1.7 million, respectively.
On revenue, Lehi presented options including the 13% usage-rate…
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