On the idea of using a sliding price scale for water use:
It might take action by the General Assembly to permit such price flexibility, but consider the likely result: Everybody would conserve more — at every spigot and tap. Those who water their lawns three times a week might find they really need to do so only once a week. Those who take 15-minute showers in the morning might realize they can get just as clean in five — and that they can rinse out a coffee cup by hand rather than running it through a cycle in a nearly empty dishwasher.
Few people would find it necessary to wash their cars daily — yet those who absolutely had to do so could. They would simply have to pay painful sums for the privilege.
Sounds good to me.