By GARY STRADLING
Republican Candidate
Los Alamos County Council

I appreciate my old friend David Israelevitz’s attempt to legitimize the County’s punitive water rates (Link) in quantitative terms that our math-minded residents can appreciate. 

However, it does not take a rocket scientist to see through his argument. Most of us understand rate increases of 6.3 percent and 27.1 percent per gallon for higher usage levels and find them to be outrageous. 

Any mom or dad in our community would rightly be up in arms if Smiths grocery store increased prices by 27 percent depending on whether we were buying boxes of Cheerios for a family instead of for a single person, or a 27 percent increased price per pound for a bag of potatoes instead of a single potato. 

David is wrong. A little child in a large family might use less, but is getting charged more per gallon, the unit of sale. Meanwhile, the child is not earning a proportionate part of the family income. Los Alamos County must not punish families but encourage them! 

How about prorating water rate reductions based on:

1. The number of people in the household; and
2. The number of trees and area of foliage that are being watered?

That would encourage the most valuable aspects of our community, families and environment, while penalizing water wastage.

LANL needs to attract young families. Let’s build a better Los Alamos that will be a great place for these young people to live!