City Councilman Eric Ulrich has blasted the administration for proposing another water rate hike. Photo Courtesy of William Alatriste/New York City Council.
City families can’t afford another water rate hike because they’re already drowning in daily living expenses, City Councilman Eric Ulrich (R-Ozone Park) pleaded with the administration last week.
The last thing [my constituents] need right now is another water rate increase,” Ulrich said in a statement following last Thursday’s city Water Board public hearing in Long Island City. “By raising water bills for the second year in a row, the de Blasio Administration is only making matters worse. Far too many New Yorkers are struggling to simply make ends meet, especially those who were impacted by Hurricane Sandy. The proposed water rate hike will only hurt working families and those living on a fixed income, the very same people the Mayor claims to care about the most. The city should really stop nickel-and-diming the middle class and come up with smarter ways to finance DEP’s pet projects.”
In March, the Department of Environmental Protection proposed a 3.24 percent increase in the Fiscal Year 2016 water rate. According to the agency, it’s the lowest proposed increase in 10 years, and 34 percent lower than the published projection of 4.9 percent anticipated for this spring.
However, Ulrich has said that any spike would soak working class residents.
“It’s getting more and more expensive to live in New York,” he said last Tuesday at the Howard Beach-Lindenwood Civic meeting. “That’s why people are packing up to leave for Florida [and other states], because taxes and fees are low, the cost of living is low.”
According to DEP, if the 3.24 percent rate increase is adopted by the Water Board, a typical single-family homeowner will see an increase to $1,058 per year, from $1,025 per year for water and sewer bills—or less than $3 per month (based on an average consumption of 80,000 gallons of water per year). A typical multi-family unit with metered billing will see an increase to $689/year/unit, from $666/year/unit —or less than $2 a month (based on an average consumption of 52,000 gallons of water per year.)
Additional rate proposals include: freezing the minimum charge of $1.27 per day for customers who use less than approximately 100 gallons daily; expansion of the low-income assistance program; credit for enrolling in Monthly eBilling; and credit for the Lead and Copper Monitoring Program.
DEP indicated that the proposed rate increase is lower than previously projected because the Rental Payment is being returned to the water and sewer system; the agency has taken “aggressive measures” to improve cash flows; revenue collections are higher than planned; and debt-service savings have been achieved in the low interest rate environment.
“By implementing effective cost controls, refinancing higher interest debt, and reducing the rental payment, we are able to deliver the lowest rate increase in a decade, and the 25 percent of single-family homeowners who use the least water will not receive any increase at all,” said DEP Commissioner Emily Lloyd. “In addition, we have put together a package of initiatives to provide relief to nearly 50,000 additional low-income, senior, and disabled customers.”
The Water Board will formally adopt FY16 rates on May 8; the new rates will become effective on July 1.
By Michael V. Cusenza michael@theforumnewsgroup.com
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