A DUBBO City councillor wants to search for any "gold-plated" items on a list of water projects as customers brace for higher bills.
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Cr Allan Smith said raising water charges for the 2013-14 financial year was not a final solution to a budget black hole.
He called on his colleagues to meet with technical staff to look for any non-essential spending before they drafted the budget for 2014-15.
Cr Smith, a former mayor, advocated a review of the capital works program as he and colleagues debated two alternative pricing policies proposed by staff to reverse the fortunes of the water fund and enable it to meet budget.
In the next four years the council proposes to direct $35.39 million into its water supply capital works program, including $15.4 million in 2013.
Cr Smith's argument for an increase to the fixed access charge rather than increases to both the fixed charge and usage charges was ultimately defeated at the June council meeting, but not before he set further business for the year.
"We need to come together with the director and look at what infrastructure is gold-plated, what is not essential," he said.
Cr Smith argued the council had a responsibility to provide "clean, potable water" and that's why it needed to put up charges, but he warned that measure did not "let everyone off the hook".
"We need to come together and look at the capital works program before the budget session next year," he said.
He warned that if the council raised usage charges, customers would turn off the taps and the budget would be left short again.
"We will have the same issues over and over again," he said.
"You only have to look at the history."
His urging received support from some colleagues but nothing was formally resolved on the matter.
On July 1 the water access charge went up to $228.25, an increase of $40 from the previous year.
The usage charge rose 10 cents to $1.74 per kilolitre.
That is up almost $65 to $661.51 for the year if a household uses 249 kilolitres.
Over the next three years water bills are set to jump by $297 in the Central Coast, $134 in Sydney, the Illawarra and the Blue Mountains and $104 for those in the Hunter.
