MWRA Board Approves FY 2017 Budgets, Community Assessments

On Wednesday, June 29, MWRA's Board of Directors voted to approve the FY 2016 Current Expense Budget ("CEB") and community water and sewer assessments.

The MWRA’s Current Expense Budget for FY2017 is $719.6 million, representing an average combined water and sewer rate increase of 3.34%. This represents a significant decrease from the 3.9% proposed in February 2016.

The biggest driver of MWRA's budget is debt service (the share of its budget that is devoted to principal and interest payments) on the bonds that financed major capital improvement projects. For FY 2017, debt service represents 63.2% of MWRA’s total budget.

Most of the projects funded through debt service were mandated by the federal court or state regulators, such as the successful Boston Harbor Clean-up, completion of the Combined Sewer Overflow Control Plan and modernization of the drinking water system.

For the last several years, MWRA has had a multi-year rates management strategy in order to keep rate increases predictable and affordable, so that its member communities can better plan for future years.

The MWRA Board also approved the Capital Improvement Program for FY 2017. The FY17 Capital Improvement Program projects $155.7 million in spending for FY 2016, of which $70.4 million supports Wastewater System Improvements, $73.0 million supports Waterworks System Improvements, and $12.3 million is for Business and Operations Support. Some of the larger projects with spending in FY17 include Deer Island Asset Protection and Long-Term Water System Redundancy.

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