Many municipal owned systems have treated rate hikes like tax increases and avoided them for years. The Government Accountability Office estimates that 29% of water systems and 41% of sewer systems charge customers less than the cost of the service.

When you purchase a bottled soft drink of less than 24 ounces, you pay a 5 cent recycling fee that you are alleged to receive back when you turn the bottle in for recycling. So, to preserve the environment, as well as asve some money, you save all those bottles and take hundreds to the local recycling center and what happens? You get ripped off! According to a little known section of the recycling law, the recycler does not have to pay you the 5 cents for each bottle if you turn in over 50 bottles, they simply weigh them and you get what amounts to 33 to 40 percent less for your bottle than the nickel you paid. It's even worse if you turn in 24 ounce or larger bottles that you paid a 10 cent recycling fee for! At Liberty Recycling in Carlsbad on December 4, I turned in 420 1 liter water bottles and received just over $13, when I should have received $21. Too bad says the recycling center and also the State of California Department of Conservation. Take 50 or less they say...and how do they even figure that pays for the fuel at $3.50 per gallon to drive to a recycling center and back. I don't mind helping reduce filling the landfill and polluting the earth, but I feel getting ripped off isn't the way to help anyone achieve a good feeling about recycling. So much for the smiling people on TV showing how you need to take your bottles back and they'll gladly count each one. I seem to remember the commercial and the woman waving the handful of bills...that sure wasn't truth in advertising since if they only count 50, there are only two bills possible in $2.50!