Do you pay a sewer bill to the county or the town you live in? If so, you should know that your bill has gone up significantly over the last couple of years and will go up even more in the future.

The reason for the steep increase is to pay for expansion of the county wastewater treatment plant (WWTP).

The existing WWTP facility has enough capacity to handle our current population, so why is the county planning to spend more than $37 million to expand capacity? The answer, of course, is growth.

Unfortunately, when you finance major expansion through rate increases only, existing customers pay for expansion needs created by newcomers.

If the county charged capacity impact fees for each new sewer hookup, each new home or business would pay at least some of its fair share of the cost of infrastructure. If not, existing users subsidize those who move in later.

You will hear from the Homebuilders Association that the county cannot legally charge impact fees on their utilities and that impact fees are unfair. They are wrong on both counts. The courts have made it clear that impact fees on utilities like water and sewer are legal without special legislation.

As far as fairness goes, I'd say forcing current residents to subsidize growth is where the real unfairness lies.

If you do not want to pay for a $37 million WWTP expansion that you did not create the need for, let your commissioners and municipal councils know. The only way to distribute the burden fairly is to enact impact fees to force growth to help pay for itself.

If not, every home currently receiving service will be on the hook for a few thousand dollars someone else should be paying.

Chris Smithson

Southern Pines

Editor's note: The writer is mayor pro tem of Southern Pines.