Excerpt

The controversy came to the Sacramento City Council in what appeared a rather innocuous agenda item last week to accept a $550,000 grant from the First 5 Sacramento Commission to help pay for fluoridation equipment upgrades…

… The city is hoping for more aid from First 5. Opponents said the terms of the grant – the city has to repay the money with interest if it stops fluoridation before June 30, 2015 – locked the city into financial risk. Annual operating costs have risen from $350,000 to $957,000, largely due to aging equipment. A consultant told the city last year that it’s going to cost $2.3 million to $3.7 million for immediate repairs and replacements…

The consultant said it will cost another $7.6 million to $9.5 million in improvements over the next 20 years. The total cost of fluoridation – both operations and equipment – would be somewhere around $45 million over the next 20 years…