Revere census means higher sewer assessment

REVERE-A preliminary U.S. Census estimate pegging the city’s population at 55,341 translates into a higher sewer assessment for the city even as it gears up for next year’s federal census.Mayor Thomas Ambrosino said the assessment levied by the Massachusetts Water Resources Authority hikes the amount Revere must pay to the state agency from $7.56 million to $8.89 million. He plans to warn City Council members tonight that the hike is going to “increase water and sewer rates substantially.”Although the 2000 census placed Revere’s population at 47,283, Ambrosino said more recent information provided to the MWRA to help it prepare assessments included the newer, higher population figure for the city.The 2010 census statistics will provide more accurate population numbers. Ambrosino said some of those figures will increase the amount of federal grant money and other revenue the city receives.Homeowners as of last July paid an average $1,085 for water and sewer service as part of a rate increase that included a hike in commercial water costs.The increase in residential water and sewer over the current $10.45 combined rate places Revere at the midpoint on a list of Massachusetts Water Resources Authority communities.Nahant residents pay one of the highest combined rates – over $1,400 according to a 2006 MWRA study. Lynn residents will pay an average of $888, beginning in July, for water and sewer service provided by the Lynn Water and Sewer Commission.Revere’s commercial water and sewer rate rose in July from $13,89 to $14.92 for local business owners or a 7.4 percent increase.There’s still a year before Americans start filling out their census forms but the nationwide statistic harvest translates into federal money spent in state and communities like Revere. Census numbers determine everything from government pay-outs to how many people represent each state in Congress. Past censuses have sparked fights over issues as varied as how to ensure remote population groups are counted accurately, to how to such terms as “poverty” are defined. “If it weren’t, important nobody would bother,” said Louis Kincannon, census director during part of the George W. Bush administration. “Controversy is not a stranger to the Census Bureau.”