Golden State vs. Casitas: water rates compared, part 1
Ojai Mayor Paul Blatz relaxes outside his home.
To help Ojai residents understand how the proposed buyout of Golden State Water Company might impact the rates they could pay for water, the Ojai Valley News will profile several typical Golden State Water Company customers.
We will compare their average water usage at today’s GSWC rates and what those charges would be as a Casitas Municipal Water District customer including the proposed property tax.
Water customer:
Paul Blatz, city of Ojai mayor
Size & type of lot:
25,233 square feet, residential
Bimonthly average water usage:
59 units
All charges from Golden State Water Company for 59 units:
$407.97 bimonthly
All charges from Casitas Municipal Water District for 59 units:
$118.96 bimonthly
Maximum bimonthly bond payment for this lot:
$205.83
Total bimonthly combined bond and CMWD water charge:
$324.79
Result:
GSWC charge would be $83.18 more bimonthly
If vote was held on the bond today, would this customer support it?
Yes
To complete your own rate comparison, you will need your latest GSWC bill. Go here to access the online rate calculator.
Select bi-monthly for “How you are billed.” Select pumped for “Gravity or Pumped.” Select residential for “Customer Type.” Find your meter type on your GSWC bill and enter that in the “Meter Size” menu. Enter the number of water units used. This figure should be an average of your last year’s total usage divided by six. Click the calculate button and make note of the estimated water bill amount.
Next, you will figure the bond amount you would have to pay. This amount will be added to the estimated water bill amount from the rate calculator and that is the figure you will compare with your bimonthly average amount paid to Golden State.
For this, you will need to determine the size of your parcel. If you are not sure, contact the Ventura County Assessor’s Office at 654-2181. For single-family parcels larger than one acre, your maximum bimonthly bond payment for this year would be $348.83. For single-family parcels between 22,000 and 43,560 square feet, your bimonthly bond payment this year would be $205.83. For single-family parcels between 10,000 and 22,000 square feet, your bimonthly bond payment this year would be $123.50. For single-family parcels less than 10,000 square feet, your bimonthly bond payment this year would be $80. Condominium owners would pay $67.83 bimonthly. There are also rates for commercial and industrial property owners that we will give when we profile those types of properties.
and don’t forget that the money paid to settle the bonds may be deducted from your state and federal taxes, as is true with other property taxes.
Here in Felton California when we acquired our water system from California American Water, our water bills were immediately cut in half. Like the reporter demonstrated here, even with the bond payment, our out of pocket expense was less than what we were paying Cal-Am.
Private water companies like Golden State will do everything they can to obfuscate the truth. Don’t be fooled. Local ownership is the way to go.
Jim Graham
Felton FLOW
Well worth it….
In addition to saving money immediately, savings will increase over time as Golden State has been increasing its rates at a far greater rate than Casitas. In addition, as water rates stabilize and as the bond will be paid off property values will increase.
So…it makes sense and cents to support the Casitas eminent domain action against Golden State.