Are 'pet projects' to blame for Portland's high water and sewer rates?

There’s little doubt that Portland has one of the highest combined water and sewer rates in the country. The city came in at No. 5 in a 2010 industry analysis of the nation’s 50 most populous cities, and rates have more than doubled since 2001. Naturally, this leads to some frustration from ratepayers. A couple years back, a group of Portlanders filed a lawsuit asking a Multnomah County judge to declare that the city improperly spent millions of dollars in ratepayer money on projects such as the Rose Festival Foundation headquarters and the Water House in east Portland.