Well they’ve started. Remember in 100 year storm, 250 year storm, do I hear 500 years? we talked about the recent rains and some city officials telling us that we had just had a 250 year storm.
They needed to go to 250 years because they had already told us that we had experienced a 100 year storm as part of their justification for the storm water fee that we are paying.
After the 2006 storms the city transferred the costs of managing the water out of the city’s general fund over to our water utility. In the process they hit us with a double whammy. A new charge of nearly $3 per month for residential users was instituted and as part two of the double whammy they did not reduce our city taxes. The charge for businesses turned out to be much higher with some businesses paying thousands of dollars each year.
These charges used to be part of the city budget. Now they are charged to us through our water bills. They are nothing other than a tax.
Of the $16 million that they collect for storm water each year only $3.9 million is spent on maintenance. Another $1.7 is spent on general and administrative expenses. The utility allocates $1.3 million to “indirect expenses” each year. In other words they are charging us $3.0 million most of which probably goes to the city or to cover internal expenses. Remember that the city got to reduce their general fund spending at the same time.
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The water utility made a presentation at city council Tuesday, October 7, 2014. They are now telling us that they do not have enough money and will need to increase the charge. Their target was just short of another $2 per month per residence. They have to go through a public hearing process first.
Now one month later we hear that they want to increase their charge 8% every year for the foreseeable future.
We deserve better
Brutus
elpasospeak 
= a 250 Year Tax increase
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Meanwhile, what about any new construction over the years anywhere upstream of the areas that are now problem spots? Has it all met standards for proper drainage? And, how can the installation of a pumping station that costs millions of dollars, and might get used for a couple of days every few years, be considered at all practical? Seems like a tremendous waste from my point of view.
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100 years … 250 … 500 … We know how good our local government is with any kind of budgets or forecasts involving numbers, especially if spending is involved.
Here’s the other thing: Common sense and fairness suggest that if you implement a fee to pay for special projects, then once the projects are finished the fee would go away. That never happens in government, especially when those dollars have been spent building personal empires which are rewarding certain individuals and contractors quite nicely.
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And sadly, the mayor is arguing for suspension of funding for open space purchases, guaranteeing that land that should not be developed will be, with the ensuing runoff issues.
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