For years, the City of Lakewood has been asking water districts to lower their fees on new development. Water districts have understandably said no to this request. The water board sets tap fees, not the city. 

Well, Lakewood had enough of asking. New state legislation was introduced by Representative Chris deGruy Kennedy, forcing water districts to be “reasonable”. 

His jurisdiction covers Lakewood. His wife is now running for his house seat. He worked with at least one member of the Lakewood Planning Commission and City Council to write this bill on behalf of special interests that will restrict authority of water boards throughout the state to set responsible fees.

http://leg.colorado.gov/bills/hb24-1463

Kennedy has bipartisan support. There is little time left for water districts to oppose the bill. The Special District Association (SDA) helped write this bill, without letting its members know. They remain silent on a position but Kennedy has repeatedly stated he has their support.

In fact, one member of the SDA was referenced in the bill itself, in the form of a Colorado Supreme Court decision in which his district won. He was not notified or consulted. He had to explain to the SDA that the legislative interpretation cited in the bill was wrong.

Both Representative deGruy Kennedy and the bill authors cite a supposed difference in fees between different districts as justification for this bill. We can show a variation from $2,000 to $47,000. These fees are tied to infrastructure costs in each district.

Asking one district to artificially lower fees because of another district is like asking Colorado to lower income tax because another state doesn’t have it. Sounds “reasonable”, right?

There is no problem with tap fees except that people don’t like fees.

If you give developers a break on fees, do you really think they will lower housing prices?

Lakewood gave exceptions to developers for affordable housing for the last five years and got NOT ONE affordable unit. This bill will only be transferring costs to existing customers because SOMEONE will have to pay.

Ironically, the bill’s Lakewood sponsors and authors will not have their rates raised because they get service from a private company that is not subject to this legislation – a private company that charges more tap fees than many special districts.

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