Archives › 2010 › February
Illinois, Indiana, Missouri, Arizona and now Kentucky. We’ve been tracking American Water Co. all year and reporting on the large increases that the company has requested in each of these states. Kentucky is the latest. The increase requested there is 37%. The Kentucky American water rate increase contains very similar elements to all the others [...]
In a recent Op-Ed in the NYT, writer Bob Herbert regales us with the story of Pennsylvania Governor Ed Rendell who is evidently on a personal crusade to cure America’s infrastructure crisis. An advocate for increased investment in infrastructure, we are told that Rendell personally increased Pennsylvania’s infrastructure spending by roughly triple only to see [...]
An ex-employee of JM Eagle files a lawsuit alleging impropriety in the manufacturing of water lines. Over 5 states have already joined this lawsuit. Does this impact your utility?
StepWise will be presenting a 4-hour seminar at the annual convention of the Colorado Rural Water Association on Monday, February 15th at the Crown Plaza hotel in Colorado Springs, CO. The course provides insight into the utility rate setting process from initial financial policies and planning, to cost-of-service rate making and process improvements. Targeted at [...]
As water and sewer infrastructure across the country ages, deteriorates, and eventually fails the cost of replacing it all becomes a growing concern. The cost of replacements is fantastically large, and it doesn’t help that these needs have been largely unplanned, meaning that these large costs tend to come as a shock to oblivious rate-paying [...]
An important part of our financial planning toolbox is the Credit Scorecard. Embedded in our financial plan models prepared for clients, we compare your own metrics against the published median benchmarks for Fitch Ratings’ AAA, AA, and A rated credits, and to S&P’s Strong, Avg., and Low indicators. While not an official credit rating by [...]
In the continuing saga of American Water and its wide scale requests for large increases in water utility rates in its service areas nationwide, we find the latest such request for its Arizona affiliate. Water Utility Rates will go up in Sun City, AZ by 28% and wastewater rates by 40% under Arizona American’s proposal. [...]