Finances
and Community Charges
Massachusetts Water Resources Authority
INTRODUCTION
MWRA is an independent authority established by state statute that provides water and sewer services to 61 cities and towns.
Each year the MWRA Board of Directors must approve an annual operating budget and capital spending plan as well as community assessments adequate to cover all planned expenses. Each MWRA member community, in turn, establishes local water and sewer charges to support both the community’s MWRA assessment and the cost of operating the local water distribution and wastewater collection system.
ABOUT COMMUNITY ASSESSMENTS
MWRA is a "wholesaler" to its member communities. MWRA's charges ("community assessments ") typically represent about 2/3 of the amount that communities bill their customers. The proportion varies considerably among communities. Each community has its own rate structure and accounting policies.
The MWRA Advisory Board publishes an Annual Retail Rate Survey.
FY 2009 COMMUNITY ASSESSMENTS
On July 16, 2008, the Massachusetts Water Resources Authority’s board of directors approved a combined water and sewer increase of 4.5% for FY2009.
The biggest driver of MWRA's budget is debt service on the bonds that finance major capital improvement projects. Since its creation in 1985, the MWRA has invested over $7.0 billion to modernize and upgrade its water and sewer system. These projects have all but reversed the effects of neglect and underfunding of the previous decades. But these improvements have come at a price. MWRA's debt service burden (the share of its budget that is devoted to principal and interest payments on its bonds) now accounts for almost 56% of the agency’s budget.
In FY 2009, the MWRA lost an anticipated $15 million appropriation from the Commonwealth’s Sewer Rate Relief Fund under the Governor’s 9c reductions. Given the tough economic outlook for its member communities, MWRA committed to address the sizable budgetary shortfall without a mid-year rate increase.
Updated December 15, 2008