Savings aren't worth it

You can save a couple hundred bucks if you decide not to change your car's engine oil for, say, four years.

But you won't feel too thrifty when the mechanic tells you it'll cost a thousand bucks to rebuild your motor.

Baker City councilors from decades ago stuck city residents with a comparable predicament by neglecting to boost water and sewer rates each year to account for inflation.

Not surprisingly, voters didn't boot any councilors out of office as a result.

Constituents often complain when they have to pay more to the government, but they're apt to stay silent so long as their bills stay flat.

Baker City's sewer bills didn't change for many years before the City Council finally took action in 2001.

At that time residential customers paid $5.54 per month for sewer service — less than one-third the average for Oregon cities.

Trouble is, because Baker City kept its sewer rates steady even as inflation pushed the city's costs ever higher, the city couldn't afford to make needed improvements to its water-treatment plant.

Which is why, in 2001, the City Council voted to more than double sewer rates over the next few years. The current monthly charge for residential customers is $13.

Now, city officials recommend the City Council increase the rate to $15. That's a 15-percent raise.

We doubt many city residents will see a comparable increase in their paychecks this year.

Mayor Jeff Petry suggests the City Council, rather than approve double-digit rate hikes at intervals of several years, impose much smaller increases every year.

We agree with Petry.

Had the city done for the past few decades what he recommends, rates might be lower than they are now. The reason, again, is inflation.

Every year the city has to delay a project, the cost rises. That means the city, when it finally does the work, must charge residents more.

It is, as the cliche goes, a vicious cycle indeed.

To keep things simple in the future, the city could raise water and sewer rates each year based on the federal Consumer Price Index. During the past decade, that index has risen an average 2.6 percent per year.

Apply that to the city's current residential sewer rate, and you get an increase of about 34 cents per month.

That's much more palatable than the $2 hike councilors are considering.