Santa Maria residents could see a drop in their water bills.
The "Golden State Water Company" asked the California Public Utilities Commission to decrease water rates in the Santa Maria service area, which serves Santa Maria, Lake Marie, Nipomo, Orcutt, Sisquoc, Tanglewood, Cypress Ridge and surrounding areas.
If regulators pass this, water bills in these areas will decrease by 4.27 percent on July 1.
The California Public Utilities Commission directed Golden State Water to track the impact of The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017. This act lowered the nations federal corporate tax rate from 35 percent to 21 percent in January. The water company will submit their tracking to credit customers to see if there has been a revenue-splitting surplus as a result of this reduce tax expense from January 1 to June 30.
"Golden State Water is regulated by the State of California to ensure water bills reflect the full cost of providing water service and making capital investments that are critical to continue providing quality, reliable water service to customers," said Denise Kruger, Senior Vice President of Regulated Utilities for Golden State Water. "The new tax law reduces our costs, and we are eager to pass along those savings to our customers."
The new federal corporate income tax will also lower the water company’s filings for 2019 thru 2021.
