MIS 3302 DISCUSSION 3

 

Earlier this year, the Houston City Council voted to increase the water bills for Houston residents.  Please read the article and view the news clip. 

Article: 

https://infoweb.newsbank.com/apps/news/openurl?ctx_ver=z39.88-2004&rft_id=info%3Asid/infoweb.newsbank.com&svc_dat=WORLDNEWS&req_dat=0DB90DB12E7BC2F5&rft_val_format=info%3Aofi/fmt%3Akev%3Amtx%3Actx&rft_dat=document_id%3Anews%252F18355F03006FDCB8

News Clip:

https://www.khou.com/video/news/local/rates-on-houstons-water-will-increase-every-year-for-the-next-five-years/285-e63c1446-27f9-405c-9ae8-dd42471002ec?jwsource=cl

Questions:

*On the water bill, typically the following is listed: 

* meter type, indicating whether this is a single-family residential user, multifamily resident, commercial customer, contract customer, government customer, or some other type of user.

*previous month’s meter reading (for the last month) – in thousands of gallons,

*current meter reading (for current month) – in thousands of gallons,

*how much water has been used -- in thousands of gallons,

*amount of water used during the month -- in thousands of gallons,  

*customer/entity name for the property being billed,

*property address/location,

*residential base water charge,

*residential consumption water charge,

*residential base sewer charge,

*residential consumption sewer charge,

*drainage charge,

*solid waste cart fee, and, the

*final amount of money billed/owed for the month. 

Your assignment is to determine: 

1. To determine the final amount of money owed for water use, what data must be input?
2. What computations must be used to process the data that determines the final amount of money owed, utilizing the charges listed above, using the current billing rates. 
3. Billing Rates are not listed on the bill.  Assuming that the residential and other customers are billed at different rates, what computation/s are necessary to determine if a customer would be billed at the residential or some other rate?  Consider the various customer types.
4. What computations must be used to process the data that determines the final amount of money owed for the month, after the first month’s rate increase.  In other words, how will that increased amount be computed?  The water rate, using the information in the article, will increase by 9% for water charges and 20% for wastewater/sewer charges, drainage charges, and solid waste cart fees.
5. List those items to be output after the computations are completed.