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The city's Water Board approved to raise the water and sewer rates starting in July. The rate hike, which AMNY calls the biggest increase in 15 years, means that an average household's water bill will go from $623 to $700 annually. The water board says that the new $700 average water rate is still below the national average (apparently Boston, Philadelphia, San Francisco and Atlanta have average rates of over $1000 a year) and that the money is needed for mandated improvements to the water system.
Many lawmakers have been opposed to the hikes and like to mention how constituents will have to go "deeper into their pockets" to make up the difference. City Comptroller William Thompson said, "It is just such an incredible burden on homeowners as they are being asked to dig deeper and deeper into their pockets." And City Councilman James Oddo told the SI Advance that he expected the hike but "I've seen professional wrestling matches whose outcome were less preordained than this increase...These are considered robust times for city government ... yet during robust times, people are being asked to go deeper into their pockets."
You can read the DEP's proposal on rate hikes here (PDF). And the higher rates are one of many reasons why landlords think rent-stabilized rents should be raised.
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of course RS/RC rents should be rasied...how can the city force owners to cough up more $ one one hand and then limit income on the other?
Oh, yeah. $77 more each year is such an "incredible burden." Overstatement, thy name is William Thompson.
They really need to clamp down on the deadbeats. This has actually been a problem for decades. I remember seeing an article in GEO magazine around 1980 about the crisis in NYC's water supply. Back then, the city had tens of thousands of abandoned buildings that had had their copper tubing stolen. The broken pipes would each gush up to hundreds of gallons of water per minute.
An 11.5% Hike?! Looks like I'm going to have to start skipping baths. No worries. The ladies will love my Enchanting musk even more.
hmm mmaybe all the overdevelopment is creating too much demand for water..wonder if they're paying their fair share
Son of a B*@#$^*%$ ! I think I pay enough for water every [6]months now they want more ???? Ridiculous I say !
for people who buy drinking water i bet your water bill exceeds $700 a year. So this is no different. Tap water isn't bad at all, in fact NYC has some of the best tap-drinking water in the world.
Water is more important than the gas for your cars.
We're lucky we have such a good water system as it is.
Stop bitching and pay up!
"Some of the best tap water " ????? What the hell are you talking about ???? It's all the same shit flowing out the tap "edEx" !!! They want you to pay more for the same product there are no upgrades currently be installed upstate . See what they are actually doing is repairing the system currently in use . That's the reason for the surcharge . I bet you didn't that the water sheds are some of the biggest security risks in this country ! The news medias coverage of this issue highlighted that risk two years ago . "Some of the best tap water" huh, I think not !