Yeah I'm with you on that one. I'm paying about $53 for city services and hardly using anything.
Only $3.20 for water (2 units of 1000 gallons per month) but an $8.87/month meter charge and $24.17 sewer charge. IMHO, they should base your sewer charge on how much water you use. Obviously I'm producing hardly any sewage if I'm only pulling 2 units of water a month! Another $15.07 for trash, even though I too doubt I even completely fill up one trash can per month. I think I have more recycling than I do trash, and the city actually makes a profit on their recycling program. The last little remainder is tax. Whatever, though. I guess it's better than living off grid where you bear the burden of all the costs, and it would cost a lot more than $53/month.
They charge sewage for exactly the same as your water usage here. I always figured that wasn't quite fair as I use a good portion of my water to water my garden, which never makes it back to the sewer. However, if they're doing that kind of accounting where you are, maybe it's not so bad!
I think the norm is to base your sewage usage off of the water you use around February. That way it should be primarily indoor usage that actually goes through the sewers. This is hurting me this year because we had our roommate move out in February and our sewer usage is based of his daily extra long showers, our water usage has dropped about in half. It was even lower for September after we had new sprinklers installed and planted new seed that we watered 3 times a day for almost an hour each (15 minutes each for four different "zones") than when he lived here
In Atlanta, the city measures how much water we use each month and bills us for the same amount of sewer usage. (You can get a separate irrigation meter, but it's expensive enough that only people who live in mansions with big yards bother.) Because our water system was so mismanaged (thanks, former Mayor Bill Campbell, you goddamn
crook!) we have approximately the most expensive water in the entire country: I use 3 CCFs / month (about 2200 gallons) and pay $50/month for it.
And then I pay about $550/year ($45/month!!!!) for trash and recycling pick up even though I don't even generate enough trash to make it worth dragging the can to the curb half the time.
For some reason, the people around here go nuts for a new fast food franchise, even if it's selling the same kind of food that's been available for years.
They've recently opened a place called "Cook-Out" around here. The line for the drive-thru is wrapped around the building almost all the time, but if you can actually be bothered to walk into the building you can get your food in 5 minutes or so.
(It's actually not bad, for fast food: they have a $5 combo that includes an entree, 2 sides and a drink where the "sides" include things that would be considered "entrees" elsewhere (e.g. quesadillas and corn dogs) and an ice cream float counts as the drink.)