HB 673-FN-LOCAL - AS INTRODUCED
2003 SESSION
08/09
HOUSE BILL 673-FN-LOCAL
COMMITTEE: Municipal and County Government
This bill requires that water connection fees be based on actual cost of the service.
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Explanation: Matter added to current law appears in bold italics.
Matter removed from current law appears [in brackets and struckthrough.]
Matter which is either (a) all new or (b) repealed and reenacted appears in regular type.
03-0644
08/09
STATE OF NEW HAMPSHIRE
In the Year of Our Lord Two Thousand Three
AN ACT relative to municipal water system connection fees.
Be it Enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives in General Court convened:
1 Water Assessments and Fees. Amend RSA 38:27 to read as follows:
38:27 Assessment for Water Supply. The governing body, or board of water commissioners if any, may assess upon the persons who are served by the water system, or whose lands receive special benefit from the water system, their just share of the expense of constructing, acquiring, and operating the system or paying any capital debt or interest incurred for the system. All assessments shall be based on the actual cost to provide such service, and written justification of such assessments shall be provided upon the written request of any person.
2 Water Assessments and Fees. Amend RSA 38:28 to read as follows:
38:28 Water Rates. For the defraying of the cost of acquisition, construction, payment of the interest on any debt incurred, management, maintenance, operation, and repair of water systems, or construction, enlargement, or improvement of such systems, the governing body, or the board of water commissioners, if any, may establish a scale of rates to be called water rates, may prescribe the manner in which and the time at which such rates are to be paid and may change such scale from time to time as may be deemed advisable. The amount of such rates may be based upon the consumption of water on the premises connected to the water system, or the number of persons served on the premises, or upon some other equitable basis. All rates shall be based on the actual cost to provide such service, and written justification of such rates shall be provided upon the written request of any person.
3 Effective Date. This act shall take effect 60 days after its passage.
LBAO
03-0644
Revised 1/31/03
HB 673 FISCAL NOTE
AN ACT relative to municipal water system connection fees.
FISCAL IMPACT:
The New Hampshire Municipal Association and Public Utilities Commission state they are unable to determine the fiscal impact of this bill on local revenue and state and local expenditures in FY 2003 and each year thereafter. There will be no fiscal impact on state and county revenue or county expenditures.
METHODOLOGY:
The Association states this bill would require that water rates and assessments against users of a water system be based on the actual cost to provide such service, and that a member of the public be able to access information about such charges. Currently, actual rates are presumably being charged to users, and the information is subject to the right-to-know law. The Association states they cannot determine the fiscal impact of this bill, if any, on local governments at this time.
The Public Utilities Commission states they are unable to derive an estimate for municipal revenues or costs to state, municipal, and local consumers of municipal water since they do not have information to discern whether the use of actual cost rate setting would increase or decrease municipal water rates.