Everyone in California — and everywhere else, for that matter — deserves clean drinking water.
But relying on charity to upgrade failing water systems in low-income California communities is not the way to meet a basic human need.
Yet that’s essentially what state Sen. Bill Monning is proposing in SB 845.
The bill would require water purveyors throughout the state to offer their customers the “opportunity” to pay a monthly fee of 95 cents per household.
Except Monning proposes to do it differently.
Instead of asking us whether we want to participate, he proposes the 95-cent fee automatically be added to customers’ bills, unless they choose to opt out.
How many people actually read the inserts that come with their bills, or even pay attention to the amount of their bill unless it’s unusually high?
Sen. Monning’s soda-shaming bill does not make us a ‘kooky’ nanny state On top of that, this would not be a one-and-done opt out; customers who don’t want to contribute would have to opt out every year.
In a Viewpoint written for the Sacramento Bee, a former chairman of the state Water Resources Control Board warned that the voluntary fee would be costly and inefficient to administer: “… it would require more than 3,000 local water systems to change their billing systems and hire new employees to manage collection of the contributions, all at significant expense.” As an alternative, he suggests adding water system improvements to the list of causes Californians can donate to on their state income tax form.
The Legislature should either find the money in the budget — or find the political courage to pass a tax.