VERO BEACH — The Vero Beach City Council moved forward 5-0 with a plan to shift mainland Indian River County and South Beach water-sewer customers over to the Indian River County Utilities rate structure.
On top of the County rates, those customers would pay a “equalization charge” of six percent, which is equal to the franchise fee the County charges.
The County recently eliminated the equalization charge tacked onto Sebastian customers’ bills, but Vero Beach did not follow suit with the mainland county and South Beach customers.
For many years, Vero Beach water-sewer customers outside the City have complained about paying City rates, which are higher for most customer classes, plus a 10 percent surcharge for not living within City limits.
Utility revenues are used to subsidize the City of Vero Beach’s general fund expenses including police and recreation.
Staff has said it would take 90-120 days to do the computer programming work in the billing system.
A public hearing and vote is set for April 15.
