BOULDER - City officials will consider giving local businesses more options in calculating their water bills as part of a review of Boulder's new water budget program.

City council will meet Tuesday, Feb. 12, to discuss possible changes to the program that went into effect last year. The water budget study session starts at 7 p.m. in the Municipal Building at 1777 Broadway and is open to the public.

The city's new water-billing structure sets monthly water budgets for customers and charges higher per-gallon rates if they exceed those budgets. The goal of the new system is to reduce water use and control water budgets in times of drought.

But businesses have complained that their budgets are figured unfairly based on outdated water-use histories in an ever-changing tenant market. They also complained about a lack of accommodations for the drier summer months as there is with homes.

Some of the proposed changes to be presented include allowing businesses to choose whether they want their water budgets calculated by historical year use (with the same budget each month) or historical monthly use (with different budgets for each month).  Additional changes could give businesses more budget options for outdoor watering.  Other changes would give more options to multifamily and irrigation-only accounts.

A hired consulting group said the changes could cost the city up to $1.27 million in lost water-use revenue if all the proposals were implemented. City staff will ask council what changes, if any, they would like to pursue and how to make up the lost revenues.

Staff said water rates have increased 4 percent in 2008 and will rise 5 percent in 2009 and 2010 and six percent in 2011. The changes could bring in 2008 an additional mid-year hike of 6.5 percent, or some kind of dispersed rate increase throughout the next two to three years. The city's water advisory board also suggested cutting expenditures to allow for the reduced revenue stream.

Materials for the water budget study session can be found online at: http://www.bouldercolorado.gov/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=8699&Itemid=399.