Well, no water rate hike. Yet. Charlotte city council is still trying to find a middle way between a special interest — local landscapers — and city staff. Heaven help all of us somewhere in between.

We need to get back to first principles. What does CMUD need to do its job? How shall it pay for those things?

How do we price water? Does the price reflect its scarcity — or some other agenda? Might it not be a good idea to start right now with some sort of tiering mechanism that CMUD can handle?

How much water do we have right now? What does that tell us about watering restrictions? These are the fundamentals we should keep in mind as we reform our public water policy. But that seems a long way off, especially in an election year.

For now maybe splitting the difference is the way to go. Give CMUD a 5 percent rate hike and allow once a week watering, or the old even-odd system. And audit CMUD.