Editorial: Columbia, SC, shouldn’t fund police with a new water, sewer transfer

ALTHOUGH WE AREN’T enamored with Columbia Mayor Steve Benjamin’s circuitous way of getting there, it’s good that he is proposing that the city take a significant step toward ending its habit of siphoning money away from its water and sewer account.

But one element of his proposal is bothersome: Even as he suggests ending the years-long practice of transferring millions of dollars from the utilities fund for unrelated purposes, the mayor wants to create a new account that would rely on water and sewer revenue to pay for police, fire and 911 services. The mayor suggests that the new transfer be reviewed annually to determine its necessity, but attaching it to critical services such as police means it would never end.

If the mayor wants to end water and sewer transfers, he must find another way to pay for public safety.

The city simply can’t afford to continue robbing the utilities fund of money needed to pay for upgrades and maintenance. The system needs every dime it collects to pay for hundreds of millions of dollars in improvements over the next decade. The improvements aren’t optional: Many water and sewer lines are in serious need of repair, and the federal government has ordered significant sewer upgrades.

One of the reasons the utilities system is in such bad shape is the council’s penchant for raiding the water and sewer account over the years.

We’ve urged the council to wean itself off the transfers that have shifted $4 million into the general fund year after year, not to mention smaller draws for other purposes. To its credit, the council has reduced the transfer by $250,000 each of the past two years. It should speed up the process, as Mr. Benjamin’s plan would do. But instituting a new transfer for public safety is a significant drawback.

With the council in the midst of budget talks and discussions about increasing water and sewer fees to pay for the necessary upgrades, Mayor Benjamin has cobbled together a plan that would eliminate the $4 million general fund transfer from water and sewer and remove $1.6 million in expenses now included in the water and sewer budget to fund development corporations and the Office of Business Opportunities. The move would allow a proposed water and sewer rate increase to be 9.5 percent rather than 12.1 percent.

The plan also would enact a 2 percent public safety transfer — about $2.6 million — from water and sewer to pay for police, fire and 911 services. In addition, it would increase the SCE&G franchise fee from 3 percent to 5 percent, while rolling back city property taxes by 2 mills. The intent is to provide relief to taxpayers while getting entities that don’t pay property taxes to share in the cost of services.

It’s understandable that Mr. Benjamin would want to replace any revenue lost from the general fund and get entities that don’t pay property taxes to help fund services. What doesn’t make sense is to say you’re ending water and sewer transfers even as you’re creating a new — and likely permanent — transfer for public safety.

This story was originally published May 2, 2015 at 5:00 PM with the headline "Editorial: Columbia, SC, shouldn’t fund police with a new water, sewer transfer."