What city do you live in with the "storm water" runoff?
The EPA was issuing a series of consent decrees on older cities (Cincinnati is an example) mandating that they spend $billions to update combined stormwater/sewer systems. While the goal is laudable, the cost was stratospheric. Cities often had to add a new tax somewhere to raise the money that was needed for this large scale of infrastructure spending. In the example of Cincinnati, a city with an annual budget below $300 million was taking on a project that would cost $3,000 million.
Don't want to blow my cover by identifying the city. It's a medium size city in one of the midatlantic states.
A lot of things about this fee gall me.
I have zero runoff from my property. I wish I had runoff, since then maybe I wouldn't have those permanent wet spots in my yard all year. So I get to pay for runoff, which I don't even have. And no, I don't want to spend 20 grand to have my yard regraded, so the wet spots go away, but thanks for the suggestion, in advance. :)
They should be taxing new construction, especially the huge new warehouses, with huge parking lots, which is the cause of the problem. Yes, they are taxing them, and at a higher rate than just a fee, but they should pay for all of it. It's the purposeful overdevelopment that is causing the problem. It's a classic case of rich folks causing a problem which the average Joe and Jane taxpayers have to solve for them with higher taxes and/or fees.
The burden should not be put on Joe and Jane Homeowner, most of whom have little to no runoff. And even if they do have significant runoff, it wasn't a problem until the overdevelopment was allowed and encouraged.
City planners allow the overdevelopment and the horrible traffic congestion and downgrade in quality of life, and guess what, your taxes are going up because of it. Yippee !!!
Finally, I had no idea that this fee was in the works. Now I see that the City Council advertised it in a few local papers, and had discussions about it at city council meetings. But everyone was obsessed with the election and missed it.
How hard would it have been to add a line to the quarterly water bill (where the fee will be charged) informing everyone about it their intentions? No, if they did that, there would have been an angry mob at every meeting, protesting. Can't have that, no no.
Rant mode off. (hey, this is the things we hate thread, no?) lol.