Linda Brayton is starting to wonder whether she can afford to be a full-time stay-at-home mom after she received her Penn Hills sewer bill.

Her quarterly bill is almost $80 more than usual because council approved a rate increase from $8.38 to $10.07 per 1,000 gallons used and a $30 quarterly service charge for 2008.

"I love Penn Hills, but this is ridiculous," Brayton said. "I don't know how senior citizens on fixed incomes will pay their sewer bills. I can go out and get a job."

She said she won't bother expressing her disappointment at a council meeting because the sewer fee increase is a done deal. Brayton will wait until the council members who voted for the increase are up for re-election and vote against them.

Georgia Homer is another resident furious about her new sewer bill. Her quarterly bill typically was $87, but this time, it is about $128.

She said she is so angry about council approving the sewer increase that she wants council and the mayor to serve as volunteers.

"Let them do it for free since they are so dedicated," Homer said. "This is an outrage. I am literally throwing money down the drain."

Council members receive $300 per month and the mayor receives $400 per month, as stipulated in the municipal home rule charter.

The municipality should go after transient residents who don't pay earned income tax, instead of jacking up everyone's sewer bills when Penn Hills is not a high-income area, Homer said.

Besides being upset about paying more for sewer services, Maryann Ruperto is bothered that her bill is for November, December and January and is based on the 2008 rates for all three months.

She said she called the municipal administration office and was told that Central Tax Bureau can bill her for the last quarter of 2007 at the 2008 rates.

Terry Van Horne, municipal manager, said he is looking into whether residents can be billed at 2008 rates for services in 2007.

"It is Central Tax's fault that they are behind," Ruperto said. "I will pay $300 for my water and sewer bills in two months."

She is an Oakmont Water Authority customer and knows a combined water and sewer bill is on its way. The water authority is taking over sewer fee collections from Central Tax, starting this month.

Residents who receive their water bills from Wilkinsburg-Penn Joint Water Authority could receive combined water and sewer quarterly bills in July. Municipal and authority officials are still working out the details.

As soon as residents started receiving their Central Tax water bills last week, many residents expressed anger by calling and visiting the municipal administration office.

Kuhn said more than a dozen residents called her. Most understood the municipality's situation that resulted in the sewer rate increase after she explained why council felt the increase was needed, she said.

For the past 12 years, as Alcosan has been raising its portion of residents' sewer bill, Penn Hills has absorbed the increases and has not raised its portion, Kuhn said.

Penn Hills needed to increase revenue from sewer services to pay down the $50 million sewer fund debt that ballooned to almost $92 million under previous administrations, which continually borrowed money and refinanced debt for the sewer fund, Kuhn said.

The municipality accumulated the debt from repairs that were mandated by the federal sewer consent decree without Penn Hills receiving financial assistance from the state and federal governments for the repairs, she said.

The sewer fee increase is not paying for the $150,000 fine associated with the consent decree, Kuhn said, adding the fine was paid in 1991.