WATER CUTOFFS ARE STRONG INCENTIVE TO PAY BILL ON TIME

Cape Girardeau's new water billing policy is strict. Residents planning an out-of-town trip for any length of time ought to make sure the water bill isn't going to arrive the day after they leave.

Under the policy that has been in effect since the city bought the water system from Union Electric in 1992, water customers had as long as 40 days after receiving a delinquency notice to pay the bill before service was disconnected. Not any more. In April, a new plan shortened the grace period to 12 days.

As a result of the change, hundreds of customers have received delinquency notices each month, and in the first month of the new policy service was discontinued nearly 300 times.

On top of being without water, there are penalties to pay: $15 for the disconnection, $15 for reconnection and a $40 deposit if there isn't one in place. Disconnected customers also have to pay $15 extra if they was to be reconnected after 4:30 p.m.

Is the new policy unreasonable? A look at other water systems shows they are pretty strict too. Sikeston water customers get their bills on the first of the month and can be disconnected on the 20th. In Jackson, bills are mailed on the first of the month and are delinquent on the 16th.

Alliance Water Resources, which operates the Cape Girardeau water system for the city, sees the new policy as a practical business matter. Without a strict policy, too many water customers take advantage of the leniency and wait too long to pay up. In some instances, customers were choosing to pay only every other month. Those payment delays contribute to the need for rate increases, the company says, which means customers who regularly pay on time must subsidize those who take their time -- or get several months in arrears.

While the shortened grace period certainly in an incentive to pay on time, there are a couple of other things the water company could do to make the policy change easier to swallow. Some customers have complained that there wasn't a very good educational effort to let them know about the change. Putting a notice in the same envelope as the bill isn't good enough, they say, because an envelope with a bill isn't were most folks look for good news.

This also raises questions about the city's switch to bills in envelopes rather than the former postcard-style bills. The added expense of the envelopes and preparing them for mailing is a cost that has to be added to some rate somewhere.

Another idea to spur timely payments comes from neighboring Jackson. Water customers there can cut 10 percent off their bills by paying promptly before the 10th of the month. A similar carrot, if offered to Cape Girardeau water customers, might prove more effective than using a stick like cutting off service.