April 13, 2008
New Yorkers' Wallets to Get Water Boarded
New York water consumers (i.e. everyone) are about to take a bath once the City's Water Board follows through with its recommendation to raise rates by 14.5%, which it was scheduled to propose Friday. The rate hike proposal comes less than a year after the most recent increase of 11.5% in 2007. To its credit, the Water Board has been cracking down on freeloaders. After the City Council nixed a proposed 18% hike, water scofflaws who ignored their bills started to have their water shut off for the first time in modern memory.
The crackdown on those who didn't pay their water bills went as far as the ability to place liens on the property of non-compliant customers. While that improved the utility's financial picture, there was a meeting Friday morning where the Water Board was expected to request yet another price increase. According to The New York Times, public hearings on any increase will be scheduled later.
With some restaurants now charging $5-$6 for a glass of filtered tap water, New Yorkers are not unaccustomed to paying through the nose when it comes to quenching their thirst.
New York City, in One Gulp!, by edEx at flickr
|
do you notice a pattern lately to the stories about state and city gov't. basically it goes like this - tax the hell out of your residents so that only the subsidized poor or the incredibly wealthy can afford to be here. it's no wonder so many people and businesses simply leave and so many of the middle feel so squeezed. we really need a house cleaning of both the city democrats who feel they are so safe and can do what they want, and both parties at the state level... or you will continue to feel someone's hands reaching for your wallet... and it will cost you a hell of a lot more than a simple mugging.
btw... the other pattern is corruption, waste, poor decision making, and a feeling that democracy doesn't mean listening to constituents but forcing them to bow to your will, but that kind of fits with the #1.
Shouldn't it be illegal to charge for the one basic necessity of life?
Kissel.
We need a complete cleaning of our government. From the federal level straight down to the city. There is plenty of money to go around. The problem is our government chooses to waste it on garbage junk.
TKaisen, the amount of water you need to survive would cost you less than a nickel a day.
If water were completely free, people would waste a lot more of it watering their lawns or filling their pools, etcetera. Then there wouldn't be enough to go around, and it would wreak havoc on the watershed. If you don't have an incentive not to waste, you won't.
It's called the "tragedy of the commons."
Wow. Your landlord pays less than two dollars per 1000 gallons. Stop whining and start using more deodorant.
And steven, I take offense to the idea that our government spends our money on garbage junk. From our $250 million dollar ea F-22 fighter jets to our $2 billion dollar water filtrations plants, we only get the best in the great US of A. Love or leave it baby.