St Louis Election Proposition Y

To the St. Louis City and County residents, did you vote on June 5th?  I did.

I debated about this one internally and I ended up with a YES vote for Proposition Y. Metropolitan Sewer District (MSD) is legally required to make massive repairs to the sewer system so there was no getting around an increase.  The ballot and choice between a YES or NO meant are we going to gradually increase or have a fairly large increase now and then a steady bill.

Through Proposition Y, voters chose the rate of increase by the MSD using bonds. A YES vote allows MSD to use bonds, and sewer bills will climb from the current rate of $28 a month to $43 a month by 2015. By 2020, the bill will rise to $80 a month because of interest charges on those bonds.

A NO vote on Proposition Y would have increased the sewer bills to $64 this July 1, and then held steady, which is less of a cost to consumers in the long run.

To be honest with a family of 5 and an occasionally tight budget, I was thinking about the now and not the later; so I went with a YES.

I see I wasn’t the only one.

The proposition passed 62,984 (85%) to 11,011 (15%).