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Monthly Flat Rate Charge- ^ Visalia Bakersfield Barstow Eeno Hanford $2*76 2.60 3.09 2.35 2.75 Las Vegas - present rate Proposed rate 2.00 2.55 For 5 room house with toilet and bath. Average Dollar Billing and Purchasing Value of Dollar: The chart which follows shows rather clearly: 1, That the average dollar revenue received per customer has remained practically constant during the past ten years; the average during this period has been $ compared with $26.22 received in 1949 and $26.47 estimated for 1950 at present rates. 2. That the purchasing value of the dollar (commodity priees-U.S. Department of Labor Indexes) has declined very materially - in comparison with the year 1940 and on that comparison the 1949 Index is but 0.53 and the 1950 infex 0.54* Thus a dollar in 1950 will only purchase 54$ of what it did in 1940t or it takes about $1*65 today to buy what a dollar did in 1940. 3* That the customer income has generally risen approxi­mately “To $ since 1940, with, of course, natural variations between different classes of wage earners and between indi­viduals. Such increase in dollar income has to a consider­able degree offset the decline in the purchasing power of the dollar. An increase in water rates would, therefore, be