MANTI—At the time the Manti City Council passed the city budget, it also approved increases in water and power rates, and imposed a new local sales tax.
At a city council meeting, June 22, Mayor Chuck Bigelow said the new water rates would make sure people using large volumes of water pay their fair share.
The new base rate for water, the charge to every customer for up to 7,000 gallons, will be $30. The charge for 7,001 to 30,000 gallons will be an additional $2 per 1,000 gallons. And the charge for
30,001 to 60,000 gallons will go to $2.50 per 1,000 gallons. Based on national averages, a family of four uses about 12,000 gallons of water per month. At that usage level, a Manti household bill would be $40.
The current power rate for residential users is $6 per month, plus 10.6 cents per kilowatt hour, plus a 2.85 percent sales tax.
Those rates will go to $9 per month, plus 11 cents per kilowatt hour. The sales tax rate will stay the same.
The national average power consumption for a 3-4 bedroom house is about 900 kilowatt hours per month. At that usage level, a Manti customer’s bill would go from about $107 to $111 per month.
The base charge to a nonresidential property for electricity has been $15 per month, plus 10.6 cents per kilowatt hour, plus a 6.35 percent sales tax.
The nonresidential rates will go to $17 per month plus 11 cents per kilowatt hour, with the 6.35 percent sales tax remaining the same.
The city council passed, without discussion, a proposal to impose a 0.3 percent local-option sales tax for streets and sidewalks. The tax would translate to 30 cents on a $100 purchase within Manti City.
The council also passed a 1 percent local-option transient room tax on hotel, motel and short-term rental stays.
Mayor Bigelow said most cities in the state charge the tax, and he felt it important for Manti City to implement it.
About a year ago, Manti hired an engineering firm to develop a water master plan for the city. The plan was completed a couple of months ago.
As part of the plan, the firm did an analysis, following a formula defined in state law, to figure out how much the city could charge as an impact fee at the time a potential homeowner or commercial business owner hooked up to city water.
“An impact fee is a one- time charge on new development, designed to ensure that new development contributes a fair share of the cost of capital improvements needed to serve growth,” Bigelow said.
The current impact fee is $1,400. The water master plan study recommended an immediate increase to $5,891. Then the study recommend- ed raising the new fee 3 percent per year for the next four years and 1.5 percent per year for six years after that.
The city council held a public hearing on the proposed impact-fee increase but has yet to take action on it.
