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Just received my Sewer bill, this year $250.00 !!
When I bought this house I didn't pay more than $50.00 ( I know, 1990 rate)
but, what am I exactly paying for, the grey water to leave my home..?
My family in CA, reuse their grey water to water the flowers/trees, and used to bathe their children in the same bath water... three times. I know it sounds gross, but, at the time, they were in the midst of a seven year drought, and their water was pumped to their water tower from a municipal line at a premium, could you blame them..?
At $250 per year, you're doing okay. Some towns charge hundreds more ... and many charge per apartment on multi-family homes. I know an owner of a four family in a Passaic County town who pays $3200 per year. (No, I didn't forget a decimal point. That's three-thousand, two hundred dollars per year in serwer charges.)
So just what are you paying for? Well, the obvious answer is that you're paying for the costs of purifying the waste water that leaves your home before it's pumped back into our rivers. For that, I'm willing to pay.
However, the less obvious answer is the troublesome one. Nearly all communities with public sanitary sewers once included this service for free to all property tax payers. No more. Sewer charges (as well as some water bills) have become a "second tier" of property taxation. So, in addition to raising your taxes ... your sewer fees get raised.
This arrangement helps pepetrate the myth that property taxes aren't going up that much. As noted elsewhere, if taxes are increased while "free services" are eliminated, government spending is growing at a much faster rate than the increased tax rate alone would indicate. It's one more method for "cooking the books."
As for conservation, I'm all for it. How about saving your rain water by funneling it into a few 55 gallon barrels? We use that to water our plants all summer.
My neighbors think I'm nuts when they see me washing my car in the midst of a rain shower. Why not? God doesn't charge. The water company does.
(As for your California family's reuse of the bath water, you're right... it sounds gross, but the drought is still very real.)
At $250 per year, you're doing okay. Some towns charge hundreds more ... and many charge per apartment on multi-family homes. I know an owner of a four family in a Passaic County town who pays $3200 per year. (No, I didn't forget a decimal point. That's three-thousand, two hundred dollars per year in serwer charges.)
So just what are you paying for? Well, the obvious answer is that you're paying for the costs of purifying the waste water that leaves your home before it's pumped back into our rivers. For that, I'm willing to pay.
However, the less obvious answer is the troublesome one. Nearly all communities with public sanitary sewers once included this service for free to all property tax payers. No more. Sewer charges (as well as some water bills) have become a "second tier" of property taxation. So, in addition to raising your taxes ... your sewer fees get raised.
This arrangement helps pepetrate the myth that property taxes aren't going up that much. As noted elsewhere, if taxes are increased while "free services" are eliminated, government spending is growing at a much faster rate than the increased tax rate alone would indicate. It's one more method for "cooking the books."
As for conservation, I'm all for it. How about saving your rain water by funneling it into a few 55 gallon barrels? We use that to water our plants all summer.
My neighbors think I'm nuts when they see me washing my car in the midst of a rain shower. Why not? God doesn't charge. The water company does.
(As for your California family's reuse of the bath water, you're right... it sounds gross, but the drought is still very real.)
what a great post, so true, find a new way to property tax you and make it look like its for something else!!! Good Post!!!!!!
I have a question..
If you're on city water, don't they include sewer service as a portion of the monthly water bill? My avg water bill if around $28/month, including sewer fees and I'm on city water/sewer.
It sounds to me like your state/local governments are really throwing the screws to you..
Disclaimer-
My Mother in Law lives in NJ... so I know you're getting the screws thrown to you on property taxes...
The water bill in my Ewing township house that I just sold was about $80.00 a quarter, and the sewer bill was around $180.00 semi annually. This was through the Trenton Water Works.
Here in Lake Elsinore California the citys water department charges over $525 per year for sewer, $43.82 per month... even if you do use any water of flush anything down the toilet! The water charges are through another water company and are not on your taxes.
They have been doing this since 1999 because they had some diliquent bills and decided they would just charge everyone a standard rate and post it against your property taxes.
I remodeled a rental proprty and it took over three months but I did not use any water but still got charge over $150 for nothing going down the sewer. Since its on my property taxes I cannot charge my tenents.
Has anyone ever heard of this and know of a way I can fight this. I have been to the Water Dept. board of directors meetings and I get voted down and it just stays on my taxes.
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Expensive sewer charges on property tax bill
