Water infrastructure needs to be maintained. That costs money. And most of that money comes in via utility ratepayers — some of whom struggle to keep up with their payments.The Philadelphia Water Department is preparing to launch a new assistance program to help those ratepayers and in the process hopes to improve upon its actual collection totals. The wrinkle in this program, which will open for applications in July, is that ratepayers don’t have to become delinquent on their bills first in order to receive assistance and what they pay will be based around their income.“This is innovative in that
