City Approves 5.6% Increase Effective July 1
Despite a public backlash, the city’s water rates are scheduled to rise again, officials from the city Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) said last Friday, May 10.
For the 19th year in a row, New Yorkers will see an increase in the price they pay for water, and while the hike is lower than past years, some are charging the 5.6 percent increase is too much.
This year’s hike is the smallest in eight years-rates went up seven percent in fiscal year 2013, 7.5 percent in 2012, and 12.9 percent in 2010 and 201 .”We’ve become more efficient, reducing our expenses without sacrificing the quality of the essential services we provide to New Yorkers, and our work has resulted in the lowest rate increase in nearly a decade,” said DEP Commissioner Carter Strickland. “Any increase can be hard for our customers, and we will continue to look for ways to further tighten our belts and work with our regulators to reduce the burden of unfunded mandates so that New Yorkers get the best possible water and wastewater services at the most affordable rates.”
But Public Advocate Bill de Blasio argued the higher rates are a hidden tax that will pad city coffers rather than improving water service.
“Our homeowners and small businesses deserve better,” de Blasio said. “This water rate hike isn’t just going to fund the water system-it’s being used to plug gaps in the City’s general budget. These hidden taxes are chipping away at the middle class, especially in the outer-boroughs. The Bloomberg Administration needs to start leveling with New Yorkers and stop fleecing hardworking families.”
The average single-family home will pay an estimated $991 a year for water, according to the DEP.
The city says increases are needed to pay for unfunded projects mandated by the federal government- projects like the $3.2 billion Croton Water Filtration Plant in the Bronx and $1.6 billion Ultraviolet Disinfection Facility upstate.
From 2002 through 2012, 65 percent of DEP’s capital spending was for mandates, according to DEP reports.
In a statement released in early April, city comptroller John Liu panned the hike proposal.
“City Hall’s proposal to hike water prices yet again is another blow to struggling New Yorkers’ pocketbooks,” Liu said. “After the astronomical rate rises of the past seven years, it is cold comfort that the proposed hike is ‘only’ 5.6 percent. Citizens should protest this proposed hike at the coming hearings.”
The DEP is the agency responsible for proposing water rates for the city and holding public hearings to vet proposed rates.The New York City Water Board voted last Friday to approve the Fiscal Year 2014 water and sewer rates as proposed by the DEP on Apr. 5.
After five weeks of public comment, and public hearings held in all five boroughs, the board approved the increase, which takes effect on July 1, according to a press release from the agency.
The DEP manages New York City’s water supply, providing more than one billion gallons of water each day to more than nine million residents, including over eight million in New York City, the release stated.
