On Monday, August 21, 2017, the California legislature amended Senate Bill 623 to include a tax on municipal water use. The tax ranges from $0.95 per month for a water meter up to 1 inch in size to $10 per month for meters greater than 4 inches. While San Juan supports the goal of providing funding assistance to disadvantaged communities without access to safe and reliable drinking water, we do not support this approach.  

We are asking that our customers support our opposition and send correspondence to the bill's authors prior to September 15, 2017:

senator.deleon@senateca.gov  Senator de Leon

senator.hertzberg@senate.ca.gov  Senator Hertzberg

senator.monning@senate.ca.gov  Senator Monning

Feel free to use this template: 

The purpose of SB 623 is to establish a fund to assist communities in California to pay for the cleanup of their water supplies. The intent of this bill is laudable, as some communities, particularly in the Central Valley, have water supplies that have been contaminated by natural or man-made sources, and they can't afford to pay to clean up these problems. However, taxing Californians for something that is essential to life does not make sense, especially at a time when some are raising concerns about the affordability of water. To impose a statewide tax on Californians’ water bills would turn local water agencies into taxation entities that send money to Sacramento. This problem is a public health and social issue that takes focused leadership on the state level. Adding a statewide tax to local water bills is just not sound policy.

View the bill here

Please note: The information you send will become public record and will be available for public viewing. If you do not wish to have your personal information shared, please consider this before including your address and/or phone number in your email.