In the discussion over whether the city of Houston should increase water rates, blogHouston and Harris County Almanac fault the Bill White administration, saying he should have made public works more of a priority instead of kicking the can down the road to newly-elected Mayor Annise Parker.

blogHouston:

Too bad effectively dealing with that longstanding problem (and the crime lab, pension underfunding, HPD understaffing, etc) wasn't a priority of the mayor who purported to "run the city like a business" (although a better description might have been, "run the city like a big statewide campaign prop, while punting hard decisions and problems to future administrations").

blogHouston and Harris County Almanac also point out that blogger Ubu Roi, whose day job is in the city's Public Works & Engineering department, has been predicting the increase for a while.

The discussion started after a Houston Chronicle story earlier this week, which said that officials could choose to spread the increase over several years or hit ratepayers all at once with an increase of as much as $3-a-month for residential users.

Officials cautioned that no proposals are on the table and discussions about solutions are preliminary. Still, the issue has emerged as one of the earliest challenges in Mayor Annise Parker's administration.

“Council members are going to have to make some hard choices,” Parker said. “This is a problem that's been out there for a very long time.”

Off the Kuff says he's in favor of a plan advocated by former Mayor White to base rates on two factors: a fixed cost to cover debt for large-scale projects and a variable rate based on each customer's usage. He also says that to him, "$3 a month isn’t very much."