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Discussion Issues The immediate issue before the Council is whether to expand the Utility Fee Discount Program to include owner-occupied, multi-family housing. However, it's difficult to assess the issue without looking at the broader public policy implications of the Program itself, and whether other aspects warrant further consideration. With any public assistance program, it's important to reflect upon why the program was created in the first place. In this particular case, the Program was created to achieve a specific outcome - to encourage homeowners to connect to the municipal water system and to provide assistance for those that have limited financial means. Clearly the primary objective was achieved long ago. One might conclude that the only remaining objective is to provide assistance to those that have limited means. Public Policy Issues The issue of whether to expand the Discount Program has many public policy implications. In the interest of facilitating discussion, the following talking points are submitted: 1) If the Program's original objective has been achieved (which appears to be the case), then what are the Program's current objectives? 2) The Program is a public assistance program -which are designed to redistribute financial resources to those will lesser financial means. Is this type of program suited for the municipal level or are their other forms of government that could do it better? 3) At an effective discount of $36 annually, does the Program make an economic difference? 4) Currently, Program recipients qualify on the "Honor" system. Aside from property ownership verification, there are no efforts to authenticate whether submitted information is accurate. Is this acceptable? Staff is prepared to facilitate a discussion on each of these policy issues. In an effort to provide the Council with greater background, supplemental information is presented below. Current Program Enrollees Currently, 20% of all single-family homeowners receive the discount. This amounts to approximately $85,000 in annual costs that are redistributed to those that do not receive the discount. Our records indicate that of the homes that receive the discount, 100% of them qualified under the "retiree" criteria. Expanding the Program to include owner-occupied multi-family housing units would increase the eligible housing units by approximately 1,000. Assuming that all eligible units took advantage of the Program, the annual costs that get redistributed could rise to a total of $120,000 annually. 2