It seems that it now costs you both to get water and to get rid of water. With the rather sudden and unexpected imposition of the sewer fee Montclairians are reeling. According to some, the fee-based system is fairer because it is based upon usage; according to others, it is just a tricky way of bleeding more from homeowners by paying the $2.7 million to the Passaic Valley Sewerage Commission without making it part of the town budget. Information on the change can be found at the Montclair Township website which claims that the "consumption charge, based on how much each customer is discharging into the sewer system" will "fairly charge heavy users of the system and not effect most one-family homes." How it is that an increase, which for many of us, will be several hundred dollars, is not going to have effect, remains mysterious.
Jon Rosenberg sent us his response:
Dear Mr. Hartnett:
I am a Montclair resident living with my family in a single family home on Victoria Terrace. I am writing in the hopes that you can shed some light on the exponential increases in our water/sewage bills.
When we moved to this Town several years ago, the water rate was $2 per 100 cubic feet of water. As of our April 06 bill, it had risen to $2.30 per 100 cubic feet, and with our usage (which fluctuates between 27 and 40 units every three months) this put our monthly bill at $30 per month for water --which seemed extremely high UNTIL we received our latest bill today:
That bill, a sewer bill dated 8/8/06, charges us $183 -- which if I understand the township website correctly is only the first of two bills we will receive this year. This suggests that our monthly charges for sewer will be another $30 per month on top of the $30 per month we pay for water-- that's $60 per month for provision of basic water services.
We do not have a pool, we barely water our lawn, and are fairly moderate users of water. While the Town website suggests that this new sewer bill is fairer than incorporating the charges in our taxes, it comes across more as a bait and switch, as taxes are already projected to rise 5% this year, even with sewer charges removed from the tax structure and billed directly to
residents.
This is just a guess on my part, but if my family of four are typical water users, then the sewer costs that the township is collecting in these new bills annually must be at least on the order of $4,000,000. So the town is shifting $4,000,000 or more from taxes to direct billing, and our taxes are still rising at least 5%.
I'd appreciate your thoughts on this, as the expenses of living in this town are increasing at a rate that greatly exceeds any rate of increase in the incomes of most of its residents.
Sincerely,
Jon Rosenberg
Posted by Deirdre Day-MacLeod on Sunday, August 13, 2006 8:16 AM
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