Winthrop Council approves budget billing program

by Michael Mattison
The Winthrop City Council approved a budget billing program at its regular June meeting.
The plan is to launch budget billing in August but before that happens City Administrator Michael Looft wanted a general policy and guidelines in place.
The City has been on its new billing and utility system for 12 months. “Now we can start calculating what a budget bill looks like for each resident,” said Looft.
Under the program, each month that same amount will be due from the customer throughout the year until September. That month the bills will be recalculated.
“If a house sells or an apartment fills, there would be some fluctuations in that and in September that will catch up to them.
“If they move out before then, we would read it just like any other bill. We would read the meter for their final bill and they would pay that.”
Shutoff and disconnect notices will remain the same.
“If we feel like their account is not in good standing and they are not paying their budgeted amounts, we elect as a staff just like for other billing to take that right away from them,” Looft said. They would then go back to regular billing.
Looft added the City is not requiring automatic payment with budget billing. He stated that Social Security checks vary when they are issued. “We are going to let them pay how they can,” he said.
Both residential and commercial accounts will be eligible.
“This is for senior citizens and families that have fluctuations in their electric bills and water bills. This is going to be good for everyone,” Looft said. “It definitely helps families and people that have a tight budget.”