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Worcester County proposes uniform commercial EDU rating, 5% base increase and options to reimburse commercial customers
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Summary
Public Works proposed a FY27 5% base rate increase and a policy to standardize commercial EDUs to 250 gallons/day; commissioners pressed staff to prepare options to compensate commercial customers who were unintentionally overcharged under last year's tiering structure.
County public works staff told commissioners April 14 that the FY27 water/wastewater enterprise budget requests a roughly 5% increase to base rates and a standardized approach to commercial equivalent dwelling units (EDUs).
Quinn, the county's public works presenter, said the budget sets a policy that all commercial EDUs would be rated at 250 gallons per day (the same as domestic EDUs in most areas) rather than the inconsistent 250/280/300-gallon conventions that existed across service districts. The change is intended to make billing and usage tiers more consistent across the county.
Staff also proposed a modest base-rate increase of about 5% in the enterprise funds. Quinn said the change combined with EDU re-ratings would shift some base fees onto commercial customers who have multiple EDUs, but would also better align charges with capacity planning and funding for planned capital projects such as force-main designs and well upgrades.
Multiple commissioners expressed concern about businesses that were swept into higher usage tiers under the previous usage-tier design this year. Commissioner Bertino said the prior formula had "unduly" affected some commercial businesses and asked staff to prepare a path forward to reimburse or credit businesses that were negatively impacted. Commissioner Fiore agreed and requested the staff produce a data-driven option that calculates individual customer credits based on actual consumption and EDU allocations.
Quinn said the county can segregate commercial and domestic accounts and track historic usage, and that staff will return with options and figures for commissioner review. Several service areas were presented in detail; some service areas are projected to need general-fund support or to draw on fund balances for FY27, while others showed small surpluses.
Next steps: staff will prepare a proposal for commissioner consideration showing (a) how many commercial customers were affected, (b) an options paper on credits or refunds and the estimated fiscal impact, and (c) any technical corrections to usage/EDU tables for inclusion in the May budget session.
