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By Barbara Taormina
REVERE – At this week’s City’s Council meeting, Chief Financial Officer Richard Viscay took on the unenviable task of explaining the city’s decision to cut back the Water & Sewer discount program for seniors. Viscay was responding to Ward 4 Councillor Paul Argenzio’s request that the city reinstate last year’s rates, which were a 30 percent discount for seniors who use 30,000 gallons or less; a 20 percent discount for seniors who use 30,001 to 70,000 gallons of water; and a 10 percent discount for those who use 70,001 gallons or more. Argenzio said he had heard from two constituents who were upset because they no longer qualified for the discount, which is now limited to homes with 60,000 gallons of consumption.
Viscay said the program, which is for one-, two- and three-family owner-occupied homes, included around 1,100 to 1,200 people who qualified for the discount and whose median consumption was around 45,000 gallons. Viscay said homes using 70,000 gallons were likely multi-family rental properties rather than senior homes and the discount program is meant to support seniors and allow them to age in place – not to subsidize income-earning rental properties.
Viscay said there was also an audit of the residents receiving the discount and some no longer lived at the address listed in the program, and others had passed on. And according to Viscay, the new discount rates align with the Mass. Water Resources Authority’s [MWRA] push for more conservation.
“We were just trying to administer a good program for seniors; we were not trying to hurt anyone,” said Viscay.
But Argenzio wasn’t having it. He said the senior Water & Sewer discount was a small benefit that helped Revere seniors stay in their homes. He also pointed to the city’s $34 million Water & Sewer Enterprise Fund and said the senior discount program cost about $200,000 a year. Argenzio also said he had read through the MWRA information on conservation and found explanations of flush toilets and how to water lawns during summer droughts, but nothing on cutting discounts for seniors.
Councillors backed Argenzio’s proposal to return to last year’s discount rates, but it will be reviewed by the council’s Ways & Means Subcommittee before any action is taken.
