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The poster stated if the developers don't pay it, then taxes have to be raised on everyone in the town to handle flooding. How would that be better??
That's the sad part of all of this. It's a very practical and pragmatic solution to an otherwise difficult problem, but all it takes is for it to be labeled a "tax" and people start clamoring for a knife in order to cut their nose off to spite their face. I would imagine some of these same people would be the first to pick up the phone to scream at their local Town Administrator or Public Works Director about flooding on their street and asking why nothing is being done about it.
That's the sad part of all of this. It's a very practical and pragmatic solution to an otherwise difficult problem, but all it takes is for it to be labeled a "tax" and people start clamoring for a knife in order to cut their nose off to spite their face. I would imagine some of these same people would be the first to pick up the phone to scream at their local Town Administrator or Public Works Director about flooding on their street and asking why nothing is being done about it.
what is the problem? there doesnt even seem to be a problem.
how much stormwater run off is generator by muh roads? is that not a shared surface?
what is the problem? there doesnt even seem to be a problem.
Where I live there is no problem and I doubt that my Township would enact a stormwater utility as there is no need for it. I spoke with our Mayor about it recently and he didn't see a need for it either nor have any interest in enacting it. However, there is no shortage of problems out there. Try to drive Route 22 through the Union County area during or right after an intense 1"+ per hour rain event. The roads run like rivers, there's ponding everywhere, etc...its a scene that plays out all over heavily suburbanized and urbanized areas of the state that are relying on century old drainage infrastructure that is either undersized, clogged, collapsed, or all of the above.
They are problems not only caused by property owners, who are the only ones getting taxed.
Well, owners of all types of real estate property should also pay for this. Both residential and commercial and honestly developers building large projects should pay too. If only home owners will be charged this tax than I agree that this situation would be unfair.
Well, owners of all types of real estate property should also pay for this. Both residential and commercial and honestly developers building large projects should pay too. If only home owners will be charged this tax than I agree that this situation would be unfair.
All property owners with impervious cover on their properties would be assessed. The only property owners not receiving an assessment would be owners of completely undeveloped parcels of land. My neighbor's hayfields for example would not be assessed as there is no impervious cover on any of his 120 acres of farmland. He would be assessed on the 5 or so acres that his house and barns sit on because of the driveway, the roofs, etc... Don't take my word for it though-see here how the City of Fort Worth, Texas does it: Stormwater utility fee | City of Fort Worth, Texas
Swamp_Yankee;54378409]First, this money would not go to the state.
That's a relief!
Quote:
The legislation would allow municipalities to create individual stormwater utilities in their respective towns. Municipalities operate utilities of various kinds already-garbage pickup, sewer treatment, water service, electric service, municipal pools, municipal golf courses, etc...in other words, a utility is any service provided by the municipality that is not paid for by taxes assessed on every property, but rather by user fees charged to only those using the service. As an example, consider a municipality which has dense suburban areas served by a sewer system and more rural spread out areas that rely on septic systems. Raritan Township in Hunterdon County would be a good example. It would not be fair for property taxes to fund the sewer service since not all properties benefit from it, so it is instead funded by user fees charged to those who actually use the service. The fees go into a utility budget which is entirely separate from the municipal budget, which is funded by tax dollars. The utility budget funds the operation, maintenance, and capital improvements for the utility (ie: operation of the sewer plant, repair of old pipes, extensions of new mains for new service, etc...)
In the case of a stormwater utility, most towns have extensive systems of underground pipes and drainage structures which convey stormwater away from homes, businesses, and roads into rivers, streams, lakes, and wetlands. Like lots of infrastructure in this country, a lot of the stormwater systems are old, failing, and not able to keep up with increasing rainfall. Even newer stormwater infrastructure needs regular maintenance as storm drains become clogged with leaves, sediment, garbage, tree roots, and everything else that gets washed into them during rain events. The problem is that unlike a sewer system where users pay a fee, there was previously no easy way to quantify an individual property's impact on a stormwater system. Now with GIS mapping, a municipality can quickly and cheaply determine how many square feet of impervious cover exists on any given property via satellite imagery and calculate the volume of water directed into the storm system for a given amount of rainfall.
From this data, municipalities can assess a fee based on the impact of the amount of water expected to come from a property in a given time period. These fees will be directed into a utility which will be solely dedicated to operation, maintenance, repair, and capital improvements to the stormwater system (replacement of old pipes, cleaning of pipes, installation of new drainage infrastructure, etc...), just like a sewer system. Every municipality which operates a utility is required to publicly post its budget just like the municipal budget so its quite simple to see how the money is spent.
Quite detailed and interesting information. Thanks.
i am mostly ignorant on this subject so i appreciate the info. i have never really thought about how my quarterly sewer fee is spent but can i safely assume that the money collected for it can not be used for anything other than the operations of the sewer system? is it presently not allowed for my town to use the current sewer money for stormwater management?
i am mostly ignorant on this subject so i appreciate the info. i have never really thought about how my quarterly sewer fee is spent but can i safely assume that the money collected for it can not be used for anything other than the operations of the sewer system? is it presently not allowed for my town to use the current sewer money for stormwater management?
It would depend on how it's structured.
There are usually two components in a water or sewer bill. One component is for cost of operations, supply, treatment, getting it to/away from you. That includes an amount, usually, for maintenance. The second component is for capital projects, typically paying off the bonds used to construct and upgrade the system or to expand it.
Here we get a quarterly water/sewer bill that just covers the first item, cost of operations. On our yearly property tax bill we get a separate special assessment charge for the capital category (note, this can be called a benefit charge, front foot benefit charge, capital benefit charge. A bunch of different names) which is paid with the property taxes.
We don't take storm water management out of sewer revenues but the General Fund.
i am mostly ignorant on this subject so i appreciate the info. i have never really thought about how my quarterly sewer fee is spent but can i safely assume that the money collected for it can not be used for anything other than the operations of the sewer system? is it presently not allowed for my town to use the current sewer money for stormwater management?
As North Beach Person said, it depends on the structure. Go to your town's website and find the budget page. If your town owns and operates its town sewer system there will be at least two budgets, a municipal budget for all municipal services (DPW, Finance, Police, Fire, etc...) and a sewer utility budget. If your town owns and operates its own water system, it may have a water utility budget as well. Madison and Milltown operate their own electric utilities, so they have budget for those. High Bridge has a golf course, so there is a utility budget for that, and so on and so forth. Download the budget for the utility and you can see where and how the money is spent.
Utility budgets are intended to keep user fees from being just funneled into the general municipal budget where they can be used for anything as opposed to maintenance, operation, and improvement of the utility itself. Right now, sewer utility funds cannot be used for stormwater improvements simply because its not part of the sewer system. The only way a town might justify to its auditors (and residents) that sewer utility money could be used for stormwater improvements would be a scenario where a deficiency in the storm system was causing problems in the sewer system, ie: flooding in a given area which was causing stormwater to flow into the sanitary sewer, which is referred to as "Infiltration and Inflow" or "I&I." Allowing stormwater into the sanitary system drives up treatment costs as there is more water flowing through the plant than there needs to be, increasing electricity costs, chemical costs, sludge hauling costs, and wear and tear on equipment. At its worst, it can cause backups into homes if there is a large volume of stormwater pouring in. Either way, that would be a plausible situation where sewer funds could be used to fix a stormwater problem, but run of the mill street flooding would not be.
As one of the most taxed states in the nation, we should look towards our representation in congress in order to lower our federal taxes as we are one of the biggest provider states in the nation. Oh that's right, they are all Dems and think we should all get f@cked with taxes...
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