What Doesn't Roll Downhill in Gulf Breeze?

To the surprise of no one, the Gulf Breeze City Council on Monday approved raising utility rates on everyone who doesn't live or vote in the City of Gulf Breeze. The "Wanker Paraphrase" of the week came from Dick Snyder, lifetime chairman of the "advisory committee" that recommended the rate increase:

Don Richards, president of the United Peninsula Association, read to the council a position paper that stated the association "adamantly opposes the arbitrary rate increase ... for the users of the 32563 ZIP code."

South Santa Rosa Utility board chairman Dick Snyder disputed Richards' remarks. He said there has never been anything arbitrary about the utility board's recommendation to the council to raise rates.

Differential rate hikes by zip code, rather than actual cost-of-service, aren't "arbitrary?" And just how does Dick Snyder -- who repeatedly utters sweeping conclusions unsupported by facts -- know this?

There hasn't been a cost-of-service analysis released to the public since the City of Gulf Breeze bought the South Santa Rosa Utility (also housed in "improper" 32563, by the way). But, it's a dead certainty it costs more per household to pump the sewage of "proper" Gulf Breeze residents (32561) to a point some eight, ten, or more miles eastward than it does to dispose of sewage from "improper" residents (32563), most of whom live within a much shorter distance of the sewage treatment plant and various spray fields in "improper" Gulf Breeze.

So, now "proper" residents will be costing more but paying less than "improper" residents for sewage disposal. In Gulf Breeze, sh*t doesn't roll down hill. It rolls eastward.