Making a hard transition

That gurgling you hear is the sound of Douglas County's sewer fund backing up. The same is true of the county's water funds. Both mean customers of the county's utilities are about to take a big hit on their monthly bills.

Douglas is not the county's largest sewer provider. That would be the Minden-Gardnerville Sanitation District. It's in a close race for second with the Indian Hills General Improvement District.

The county is also not the largest water provider. The Gardnerville Ranchos General Improvement District has three times the customers.

Fewer than 10 percent of the county's residents are served by the county's sewer system or the handful of water systems it operates.

But those 10 percent can anticipate increased rates when they can least afford them.

Compounding the problem is the sudden drop-off in connection fees thanks to a flat housing market.

Utilities are someplace where growth should always pay for itself. Connection fees should go to pay for plant expansion, while user fees go to operate and maintain the plant.

In the case of the county's sewer plant, connection fees have been used to pay the loans to expand the plant. That loan is not paid off, because the county anticipated a lot more growth in the system than actually arrived. That leaves the remaining users on the hook for making the loan payments and maintaining the plant.

In good times, the county might have been able to defray some of the cost, but with the budgets tightening up, it's going to be a hard time for everyone.