In the News

By Chris McGill - bio | email

LOUISVILLE, KY (WAVE) - A local watchdog group that calls itself "STOP I.T." - which stands for "Stop Invisible Taxes" - announced Monday that it plans to file a lawsuit against Bud Schardein, Executive Director of the Metropolitan Sewer District and Metro Louisville Mayor Jerry Abramson.

The group claims that the rate increase MSD implemented in August of last year violated a state law. KRS 76.090 makes it mandatory for any rate increase to be passed by Metro Council and then signed off by the Mayor before being imposed. 'STOP I.T.' claims that process wasn't utilized.

"They did not get legislative body approval and they did not get mayoral sign off on that particular issue," said 'STOP I.T.' Operations Manager Paul Holliger. "We believe that the state law is crystal clear in terms of what needs to be done; however, MSD didn't do that."

We sat down with MSD's Bud Schardein immediately following the announcement of the lawsuit. He adamantly disagrees with Holliger and says every rate increase since he's been in charge has been one-hundred percent within the law.

"I'm not going to make legal opinions because I'm not an attorney, let that take its course," Schardein said. "But I'll tell you this: I'm confident that everything that we've done as far as our rate structure is concerned has been done within state statutes and local ordinance. I'll stand on that."

Schardein says that any increase under seven percent requires only the approval of MSD's Board of Directors. In 2007 MSD did have to seek the approval of the Mayor and Metro Council for a 33 percent rate increase.

The lawsuit was scheduled to be filed no later than Tuesday afternoon. If the suit makes it before a judge and a ruling comes back in favor of the watchdog group, it could mean tens of millions of dollars in refunds to MSD customers.

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