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New Water-Bill Increase Looming; Public Hearings Scheduled
Web-Exclusive: April 11, 2008, 3:29 p.m.; updated 10:35 p.m. and April 14, 10:31 a.m. — Get set to pay an average of as much as $102 annually per unit for water, bringing the total yearly average to $801. That's what analysts are estimating New York City building-owners will pay under the Water Board's newly proposed 14.5 percent rate increase — which comes only four months after the Board wrangled the right to impose liens on buildings with unpaid bills, in exchange for not proposing any rate hikes.
As the Daily News reported today, the Water Board must first go through public hearings, set for early May (see schedule here), with the vote scheduled for May 16. The increase would take effect in the fiscal year beginning July 1, and cost building owners, including co-op and condo boards, an additional $290 million.
James Gennaro (D-Queens), chairman of the city council's Environmental Protection Committee and a critic of new increases, told the paper, "I will continue to yell and scream" in opposition.
The Water Board already increased rates 11.5 percent last July — the largest annual increase since 1992. Five months later, it threatened to jack up rates 18 percent more in January 2008 unless City Council passed legislation allowing the NYC Department of Environmental Protection to sell water-bill non-payment liens to outside buyers — even though the DEP itself concedes it has poor billing procedures and records, leading to buyers who can now sue building-owners for even incorrectly billed amounts.
— Frank Lovece
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