BY FRANKIE EDOZIEN, NY PostThree Queens councilmen blasted the Bloomberg administration's water board for considering an 18 percent rate hike even though the board has ample funding through next year.
Queens Democrats James Gennaro, David Weprin and Leroy Comrie want the water board's financing restructured so that cash it pays to the city can be used to avert a rate hike.
If it's put in place by January, as currently proposed, the rate hike would be amount to a 39 percent increase in less than two years coming on the heels of a recent 21 percent hike, Weprin noted.
"This is an outrage," Gennaro said.
Weprin said he was calling on state officials to see if the board could legally effect a hike so soon.
"Can you imagine the chaos if the City Council were to set property tax rates every couple of months?" he asked.
Lawmakers have scheduled a hearing on the matter for later this month.
The DEP said in a statement, "The Department of Environmental Protection has worked diligently to . . . improve collections from customers who do not pay their bill."
7 comments:
That "statement" from the DEP is mighty lame. Should be something more like:
"We have kind of thought about working a little harder to collect some of the money people owe us. But regardless, our total inability to adequately plan for the financial needs of the water and sewer system will result in homeowners throughout New York getting totally screwed."
This is so wrong. Remember when water was free?
I'm going to dig a well in the spring!
And F--K the NYC water board !
Will DEP next install a weighing system
in our toilets (like a water meter) so we can be charged
for our bodily output in the future ? !!!
Water was never free -- unless you carried it in a bucket from a well. Maybe you were a renter and didn't see the water bill for the property you lived in, but water was not free.
I find it amusing that when overdevelopment causes a problem, as in blackouts, flooded basements, transit system shut downs, the politicians scramble to find any excuse.
It reminds me of Tar Baby.
Not only do they get in deeper and deeper, their explanation gets lamer and lamer.
At what point will the public wake up?
I was NOT a renter and until water meters were installed, I did not pay for water use.
Well, it's not like the city didn't bill for water before water meters. There was a flat-rate frontage system for billing that basically charged one price for all the water you could use based on a formula that considered the size of your property, the number of units, etc.
Maybe your mortgage company paid the water bill, but you did get billed.
Of course, considering the level of competence at the DEP, maybe they just forgot to send you a bill.
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