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Show Court Opinion Causes Problems With Water Discount In North Salt Lake By MARK D. MICKELSEN NORTH SALT LAKE -- A recent Utah Supreme Court opinion describing water rate discounts for Sandy senior citizens as "discriminatory" is playing havoc with North Salt Lake plans to implement the same kind of discount system. ACCORDING TO the Supreme Court opinion "you cannot designate a specific group of people and give them a discount," North Salt Lake Mayor Robert Palmquist said Tuesday. Based on that, the city must wait for clarification from the court before approving approv-ing any water rate discount for local senior citizens and retirees. MORE THAN a month has passed since city council members were asked by one local senior citizen to lower the $6.50 base rate for the town's elderly. According to the mayor, there are several sever-al problems w ith the proposal , most recently recent-ly the question of discrimination posed not only by the courts, but by younger North Salt Lake residents. ANOTHER PROBLEM is determining who is and who is not a senior citizen. In the case of the Utah Supreme Court, a judge handed down an opinion stating that water rate discounts approved for Sandy City senior citizens are discriminatory. IN PREPARING for the implementation of a similar discount program in North Salt Lake, city officials studied carefully the successes and difficulties faced by Sandy. North Salt Lake officials have already determined that the discount is "feasible," but are having difficulty with the administrative adminis-trative phase. "IF WE could come up with a way it could be administered and fair," the discount dis-count would work in North Salt Lake, Mayor Palmquist explained. He noted, however, that there are a number num-ber of local senior citizens and retirees w ho have considerably moie money that the city's ci-ty's newly weds and younger population. DISCRIMINATION complaints have been waged by the younger population, the mayor said. Plans for additional federal budget cuts which may threaten Medicaid, Medicare and housing rehabilitation will likely put more pressure on residents nationwide, he added. "IN GENERAL, people who were using those programs are going to be hurting more than normal." Since the water rate discount proposal arose, several senior citizens have approached the city in support of the program, prog-ram, the mayor explained. AND, HE added, the city council "hasn't given up" on the idea. If approved, senior citizens would be required re-quired to apply for the discount on a yearly basis. IF DISAPPROVED, many senior citizens will be paying $6.50 per 7,000 gallons gal-lons of water whether they use the full 7,000 gallon minimum or not. |