In a family, what’s mine is often yours. And what’s yours is often mine.

Litchfield City Administrator Bruce Miller posed a similar concept of sharing between the city’s public utility funds to help ease the burden of a possible big sewer rate increase for 2008.

Miller suggested a short-term utility rate stabilization concept for City Council members to think about last week as they deal with a projected $120,000 shortage in the city’s sewer fund.

Miller said the closing of Innovex is to blame for the anticipated shortage. The company ran an annual sewage bill of $120,000 to $140,000, but because it closed in March, the city will need an across-the-board rate increase of 5 percent to cover those missing dollars.

Miller said the obvious option would be to raise sewer rates 5 percent in addition to the planned increase of 4.4 percent set back in 2001. That would bring the 2008 rates up nearly 10 percent just to break even next year.

Therefore, Miller offered a second option that could soften the blow to utility users. He suggested implementing smaller rate increases each of the next few years and transferring the remaining dollars from the city’s electric fund, which looks strong for 2008.

The stabilization plan works by splitting the dollars needed to cover the anticipated $120,000 Innovex deficit between rate increases and transfers, Miller explained.

For example, if the city were to spread the plan over three years, it could raise sewer rates around 2 percent for 2008 for an additional $40,000 and transfer the remaining $80,000 from electric to sewer. In 2009, the city could bump up rates another 2 percent for a total of $80,000 and then transfer only $40,000. By 2010, the city could bump the rate up a little more and not have to transfer any dollars.

“It’s just a way to soften the rate increases that are needed,” Miller said.

Read more in the Nov. 8 Independent Review.