Drowning Under Water Bills

May 31, 2012

The City of Las Vegas has noticed its water bills nearly triple this month. This could not have come at a worse time when small businesses, residents, and hotels are trying to survive a lingering recession. Not to mention the fact that the City of North Las Vegas is on the brink of bankruptcy, which will cause further fiscal damage to the Las Vegas Valley.

The Las Vegas Sun spoke to small business owners in North Las Vegas who are now forced with the hard decision of whether or not to keep their doors open.

“My heart sank,” said Janine Meredith, owner of a contracting business in North Las Vegas after she received her water bill a few days ago.

The interesting fact is these water bills are based on the meter size and not the water usage itself. The hardest hit victims of this water rate hike are the small businesses who are seeing up to 300 percent increase to their water bills. Hotels are only seeing a 2 to 6 percent increase to their water bill, residents are only seeing an added $5 to $19 to their water bills.

Tim Hammer who is one of the principals of more than 20 Storage One self-storage unit facilities throughout the Las Vegas Valley. He’s seen water bills for those facilities recently increase from $11,500 to $26,000 per month

Small businesses scope the majority of economic growth in our country. Drowning that growth under water bills is only going to make it harder for southern Nevada to climb out of its economic crisis.

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