Sewerage Authority Customers To See 10 Percent Hike In Rates

Customers of the Franklin Township Sewerage Authority will notice a slight increase in their quarterly bills as a 10 percent rate hike takes effect in November.

The rate hike was included in the Authority’s 2023-24 $16.9 million budget, passed in August and recently approved by the state.

The current hike comes in the wake of an identical 10 percent rate hike in the 2022-23 budget year.

The rate increase is higher than what was anticipated last year, when FTSA executive director Joe Danielsen told Authority commissioners that he foresaw an increase of at least 3 percent this year.

Danielsen told the commissioners at their October 3 meeting that two factors drove this year’s increase.

The first, he said, was inflationary pressure. Prices for materials for needed projects, he said, have skyrocketed.

The second factor in the rate increase is a $600,000 appropriation that, by law, is to be paid to the Township for use in the budget’s general fund.

“The only way to achieve everything would be to increase the rate by 10 percent,” he said.

The rate hike will generate about $1.3 million more for the Authority, Danielsen said.

The rate hike will cost ratepayers about $36.30 per year, Danielsen said. He said that brings an FTSA customer’s total bill to about $390 per year.

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