Letter: The State and Local Government Has Failed Towamencin Residents

(The following Letter to the Editor was submitted by Towamencin Township resident Martin Cohen. The views expressed within are his own.)

My state government has failed me. In 2016, the PA State Legislature passed Act 12, encouraging municipalities to sell their water and sewer systems to for-profit companies. 

My government of Towamencin Township has failed me and our nearly 18,000 residents by signing an agreement accepting $104 million from a for-profit company to buy our sewer system. Our residents attended two town hall meetings in April 2022 and spoke out in anger.

Over the past year, I was part of a group of residents going door to door in four waves spanning two elections. This included two ballot questions, petitions for candidates for a Government Study Commission, then speaking with voters prior to each election. The end result was that the electorate voted in May 2023 to adopt a Home Rule Charter for Towamencin Township. 

I should not have to knock on doors in four waves over the course of two elections to reverse both the poor executive decision of Towamencin Township Board of Supervisors and the punitive terms of 2016 Act 12 PA State Legislature. This legislative act is a disgrace.

Here are the most troubling problems with this law:

The Pennsylvania Utility Commission (PUC) estimates the value of a water or sewer system by receiving estimates from both the buyer and seller and then averages them to arrive at the PUC-approved sale price. 

• Problem #1: The buyer and seller have the same interest in a high estimate. The buyer wants a high estimate to charge higher, PUC-authorized rates. The seller wants more funds coming into the municipality to use on projects. This averaging is not a compromise between competing interests.
• Problem #2: Our new sewer rate will authorize customers to pay 10% of system valuation — $104M — each year, every year, forever. This is a loan that is never paid off. It is a fleecing of the public to line the pockets of a company without providing any added benefit.

Our annual sewer rate is estimated to go from $450 per year to $1,272, based on existing rates that PA American Water Company presently charges in many areas of Montgomery County. 

• Problem #3: Once our sewer system is sold, we will then be paying higher rates for future acquisitions in Pennsylvania — giving money to municipalities to entice them to sell. In other words, we will be paying our new owner to buy out more water and sewer systems in PA, without any added benefit to our community. 
• Problem #4: This is done without a public referendum.

Our state legislature should be working for us. This law is not in the public interest. Please write your state representatives and senators to repeal 2016 PA Act 12.

Signed,

Martin Cohen
Westhampton Way, Towamencin Township