Queens Tribune

A public hearing concerning the Water Board’s proposed 14.5 percent rate hike was held Tuesday at the Department of Environmental Protection’s Training Room in Flushing.

The public hearings, scheduled in each of the five boroughs, are leading up to a May 16 vote by the board. If approved, the rate hike will be effective July 1.

The 14.5 percent rate hike would mark the first time since the early 1990s that a double-digit rate hike has been imposed two years in a row. An 11.5 percent hike was issued last July.

“This is a terrible blow to New Yorkers at a time when so many are having trouble just making ends meet,” Councilman James Gennaro (D-Fresh Meadows) said.
According to the Daily News, the proposed hike will require the average one-family homeowner to pay an additional $102 a year and charge a multifamily unit another $86.
The Board has attributed the hike to rising fuel and energy costs as well as the need to fund capital projects, but Gennaro has his doubts.

“Skyrocketing water rates are a regressive, backdoor tax used to bolster the City’s general coffers,” Gennaro said. “This is like liquid congestion pricing.”

According to Gennaro’s office, the proposed rate would send $89 million collected from water bills to the City’s general coffers. By the Fiscal Year 2010, $145 million will be diverted, and by 2015, that amount will surpass $300 million.

The Water Board acts as a semiautonomous agency and must pay off the City for use of its reservoirs, aqueducts, water mains and pipes. City Comptroller Bill Thompson has also expressed concern that the tenant relationship places an unfair burden on the ratepayer.

Genarro and Thompson agree that the Board should keep tabs on which capital projects are funded by water ratepayers.
“The Bloomberg Administration should get its hands out of the pockets of water-bill paying New Yorkers and commit to using the revenues collected from water bills for water and sewer projects only,” Gennaro said.

Councilman Leroy Comrie (D-St. Albans) is calling the tax hike unjustifiable.

“Given the complexity of the water issue in this city, it would be more understandable if a water tax hike were going to fund the necessary improvements to stave off future flooding disasters,” Comrie said. “However, it is clear that revenue from this proposed tax hike will be directed to the City’s general coffers, rather than directly to funding water and sewer projects.”

Water Board members will be provided with transcripts from the public hearings and can opt to amend the existing proposal prior to the May 16 vote.

“It’s not common,” Kevin Kunkle, an analyst for the Water Board said, adding, “It has happened.”

Community input may have been limited due in part to the fact that the hearing occurred at 11 a.m.
“It’s not fair for the over two million residents of Queens that their hearing is in the middle of the day when most people are at work,” Gennaro said, adding that the other four boroughs’ hearings are scheduled for the evening.
Councilman Tony Avella (D- Bayside) called into question the water board’s judgment and lent some humor to the otherwise somber hearing.

“In the hearing room, which is in DEP headquarters, I could not help but notice that the agency had recently purchased new furniture, which seems counterproductive considering that they are asking New Yorkers to pay more when they are unable to practice some fiscal restraint themselves,” Avella said.