MORGANTOWN — The Morgantown Utility Board has a 2023 spending plan totaling just over $36.9 million in place for the coming fiscal year.
The budget is actually broken into four parts: Water ($16,133,400); Sewer ($16,753,600); Stormwater ($2,236,600) and Cheat Lake sewer ($1,778,400).
The lion’s share of those funds are generated through water sales ($14,700,000) and sewer rate collections ($16,660,000), including the Cheat Lake system.
This is the second, and final, budget based on rate increases of 13%, 12% and 18% for water, sewer and stormwater services, respectively, passed last June.
MUB leadership explained those increases were needed in order to offset inflation and the loss of Mylan Pharmaceuticals (Viatris), one of the utility’s largest customers.
According to information included in MUB’s annual financial audit, $13,477,297 in water sales and $17,106,842 in sewer fees were collected in fiscal year 2020-21 under the old rates.
Going forward, 3% inflationary rate increases are expected for water, sewer and stormwater for the 2024, 2025 and 2026 budgets, though it was previously explained those numbers will be revisited as those future spending plans are finalized.
General Manager Mike McNulty said capital improvement plans will also likely need to be fine-tuned as the year progresses.
“There are things we know we have to accomplish, then there are things we would like to accomplish that need to be done,” he said, adding, “We are behind on our tank painting and we do want to get that caught up.”
The budget includes estimated fuel purchases of roughly $300,000, up $106,000 over the budget passed this time last year.
It also includes a 3% wage increase for MUB employees. The utility will also absorb a 5% increase in the cost of employee health insurance.
“I like to call something below 5% a cost-of-living adjustment. That’s generally been a raise the last couple decades. This year, not so much,” MUB Board of Directors member Erik Carlson said. “So it’s good to be doing that absorption on top of the increase in pay because our dollars aren’t getting us quite as far as they did a year or two ago.”
In addition, the board voted to increase the number of vacation days employees can carry into the following year from five to 10.
