Affordability – Manny Teodoro

Pricing Predicament 💻

Affordability in America, 2023 | Part 2How you distribute the load matters.An odd thing about water compared with most other things we buy is that residential water demand represents qualitatively different uses of water

Variable Flow Rearranges the Deck Chairs 💻

Sometimes there’s a little to say about a lot of things. Welcome back to Variable Flow.Battle of Helm’s Deep-PFAS liability editionLet the suits commenceWhen EPA announced their proposed Maximum Contaminant Limit (MCL) for PFAS a

Tariff Trends 💻

Affordability in America, 2023 | Part 1Prices at Der Rathskeller are up, tooIt’s not your imagination—water and sewer service really are more expensive than they used to be. But figuring out how much more expensive can

Jackson Action 💻

A pricing strategy for safe, sustainable, affordable waterNot to be confused with Action JacksonLast month JXN Water announced a simple and bold new strategy to finance sustainable, affordable water in Jackson, Mississippi.As readers of

Women, Wages, and Bottled Water 💻

The gendered relationship between income and bottled water consumptionBottled water was something of a novelty in the U.S. back in the 1990s when I started working in the water sector. It was perceived as

TAP Dance 💻

Lessons from six years of income-based water assistance in PhiladelphiaSix years ago, to great fanfare, Philadelphia Water launched a new approach to bill assistance for low-income water and sewer customers: the Tiered Assistance Program

Variable Flow Gets Clawed Back 💻

Sometimes there’s a little to say about a lot of things. Welcome to Variable Flow.*coming for your COVID leftoversCongress giveth, Congress taketh awayThe debt ceiling drama that recently roiled D.C. culminated in the Fiscal Responsibility

Pillars of Affordability💻

Strategic guidance for water sector leadersOver the past several months I’ve written a series advancing five pillars of affordability: broad principles to guide affordability policy for leaders of America’s water and sewer utilities. These

Lien On Me 💻

The fifth pillar of affordability is Delinquency ManagementAn epic battle of good & evil at the water meterThis is the final in a series of posts outlining five pillars of affordability strategy for water

Lighten the Load 💻

It’s hard to ask for help. Utilities should make it easier.Paperwork can be burdensomeWater and sewer affordability is a complicated challenge that demands a multifaceted solution; to meet that challenge, I’ve developed five pillars

First, do no harm 💻

Administratively costly assistance programs can hurt more than they helpperpetually stylish. timelessly true.Water and sewer affordability is a complicated challenge that demands a multifaceted solution; to meet that challenge, I’ve developed five pillars of

Towels, not tuxedos 💻

How much assistance should each customer get?When things get hot, coverage matters more than fitCustomer assistance programs (CAPs) form the fourth pillar of affordability strategy. Previous posts described the first three pillars of affordability—quality,

Bill Assistance on Walden Pond 💻

The fourth pillar of affordability is income-qualified assistancesimplify, simplify, simplify...in which I lay out a framework for water utilities that want to set up customer assistance programs.This is the latest in a series of

Of Bills and Balance Sheets 💻

The third pillar of affordability is Rate Design“Affordable” means different things in different contextsThis post is the third in a series outlining five pillars of affordability strategy for water and sewer utilities. None of

The Donut Budget 💻

The second pillar of affordability is EfficiencyOne of these matters more than the otherThis post is the second in a series outlining five pillars of affordability strategy for water and sewer utilities. Together, these pillars

Defensive Spending 💻

The first pillar of affordability is QualityGotta count the bottles and the billsSo long as water and sewer services operate on a fee-for-service basis, ensuring that these critical services are affordable will remain a

The Sweet Spot 💻

How much consolidation is enough?You know it when you hit the sweet spot.There’s a growing consensus that there are way too many water utilities in the United States.America’s 50,000 community water systems are operated

SNAP H2O 💻

Better federal water bill assistance with this one weird trickClick here to read my op-ed on this topic in Newsweek.When Congress created a new $638 million federal Low Income Household Water Assistance Program (LIHWAP)

(Un)taxing the Tap 💻

How to stop taxing waterIt’s hard to know exactly how much money Americans are paying in taxes at the tap, but it’s a lot. Last time I described the variety of ways that governments

Stop Taxing Tap Water 💻

Collecting tax revenue through water bills hurts affordability & turns utilities into coercive agents of governmentCan you find the tax?They may not realize it, but tens of millions of Americans pay taxes on the

Game Changer 💻

California utility regulators lead the way with comprehensive affordability assessmentWonderboy was the star of the movie, but Savoy Special won the gameBetween a global pandemic and a presidential election, you might have missed it, but

Batting .400 💻

On the limits of means-tested assistance programs for water & sewerRed Sox legend Ted Williams was the last player to bat over .400... in 1941**Warning: sports metaphor ahead**Like hitting a baseball, running a means-tested

Ready, Fire, Aim 💻

Managing the $638 million low-income water & sewer assistance in the federal COVID relief packageNow what?As frequent readers of this page likely know, the COVID relief bill that Congress passed in December included $638

Echoes of Vizzini 💻

No, EPA did not propose affordability guidelines for municipal utilitiesAffordability!Late last week the EPA published in the Federal Register some proposed new guidelines for evaluating sewer utilities’ financial strength. In press releases and public

Misoverestimickated 💻

About that water affordability study in The Guardian...Water is a ZILLION PERCENT unaffordable! Also, aliens.The Guardian recently published a big story on water utility affordability in the United States. The headline was shocking: “Millions of

40 Degree Day 💻

The congressional COVID cavalry isn’t coming to save the water sector"Nobody got nothing to say about a 40-degree day."The ink was barely dry on a $2 trillion coronavirus response law when Congress started working

Defense Against the Dark Arts 💻

During a public health crisis, getting the research right is paramountBeware the confundus charmIt started with a tweet.A new peer-reviewed Utilities Policy article on water utility ownership, low-income households, and shutoffs? From a pair

Two Cheers… or maybe just one 💻

for a federal low-income water bill assistance program All watery eyes are fixed on Washington The ink is barely dry on the $2 trillion coronavirus response law, but there are rumblings that a another

Rapid Relief 💻

How the federal government might end shutoffs & keep water flowing during the COVID-19 crisis Can't do this if your water has been shut off.The COVID-19 crisis has escalated America’s water and sewer affordability

Introducing the Amy Poehler Index 💻

Understanding progressive & regressive water pricingIt's irrigation season, everybody!By J. Antonio Teodoro & Manny TeodoroHow do utilities distribute the costs of drinking water systems to their customers in their rate structures?The answer is surprisingly

Squeeze Play 💻

U.S. water utilities are shifting costs to low-volume customers—good for revenue stability, but bad for affordabilityLuke Skywalker & friends escaped this crunch thanks to everyone’s favorite droid, but R2D2 isn’t going to help utilities

Water & Sewer Affordability in America, 2019 💻

An update on what low-income U.S. households must pay for essential serviceIt's hard to come up with amusing images for this topicAbout a year ago I also published the results of a national study

Water Color 💻

Water Sector Reform #5: Environmental JusticePhoto credit: EJCW.orgWith a major federal investment in water infrastructure possibly on the horizon, the United States has a once-in-a-generation opportunity to leverage that money into a structural transformation of

The Bundle 💻

Important developments in California for utility affordabilityYou probably need all threeCalifornia’s Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) is working on establishing methods to measure affordability for utility service. The CPUC governs ratemaking for the state’s investor-owned

Making it Work 💻

A Kansas water utility gets affordability measurement right And lo, there arose from the Kansas City suburbs a mighty measurement Recently we’ve seen progress in affordability measurement, as more water utilities are using better