The Usage Charge for the Sewer as a Utility
Operating Budget for Fiscal Year (FY) 2022-2023.
This is the budget that is approved for the time period July 1, 2022 through June 30, 2023. The largest share of income is from usage charges which stands at $460 per year per unit. A household is one unit. See a page created to answer the question, “Why the increase?” The rate was held constant for the prior 3-years, 2017-2020.
However, the use rate will now increase by $20 per year June 2021, June 2022 and June 2023.
There are other minor sources of income coming from late payers. Application fees are charged to properties for engineering, legal and inspection for a specific property that is new or improved on the sewer system.
Income
Expenses
As with any utility the operation must be competent—
- Personnel costs make up the largest share of total annual expenses. There are two office and two field personnel maintaining the Brookfield WPCA enterprise. The head count for the WPCA had remained the same for over 10 years, then increased with the addition of a part-time director in 2018. This is due to increased office and field efficiencies over the years in spite of the fact the system has expanded more than 50% since 2009 with the completion of several projects. A large share of the personnel cost increase can be attributed to escalating pension and benefits costs for Town employees.
- Field Operations includes minor maintenance and upkeep like landscaping.
- Utilities are costs to run and monitor the pumping systems.
- Outside Services include engineering, legal, accounting, audit and IT support.
- The Danbury Processing item is the cost for the regional plant to process sewer water flow. This is the second largest cost for the Brookfield WPCA. Brookfield contributes about 3% of the total flow to Danbury bearing 3% of the total cost each year. This cost is slated to increase with a major plant upgrade to treat phosphorus that has been mandated by the Federal and State governments.
- The Contribution to Capital is collected in excess of the cost of operation to cover future replacement cost of warn pumps, pipes, trucks and other equipment to run the Brookfield sewer system safely and efficiently. This is consistent with good practice to secure the future without any surprise assessments. The total book assets for the Brookfield sewer system is about $10 Million. The replacement cost is 8 to 10 times this accounting number.
- * The capital improvement costs for 2022-23 are for planned upgrades to accommodate growth.