Latest Water Rate Hike Gives NYC Mayor Dubious Record
Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s request Friday to increase the water rate makes him the first mayor in at least 35 years to raise the price of tap water every year of his administration.
Carter Strickland, commissioner of the city’s Department of Environmental Protection, recommended to the Water Board, a seven-member panel appointed by the mayor, a 5.6-percent increase in the water rate. The board typically follows the commissioner’s proposal and is expected to approve the rate increase effective July 1.
The Bloomberg administration peddled the proposal, the mayor’s final one after 12 years in office, as the lowest rate hike in eight years. But the Wall Street Journal said that records indicate that every mayor since Ed Koch took office in 1977 kept the water rate flat for at least one year during their terms.
Since taking office in January of 2002, Bloomberg has increased the rate every year, including double-digit hikes from 2008 until 2011.
The mayor’s latest proposal, according to an estimate published by City Hall, would increase the water bill for the typical homeowner $62 a year, to $991. Multifamily buildings with metered billing are estimated to rise to $644 a year from $610.
The city has long blamed the swelling bills on unfunded mandates from the federal government and disputed bills that arise from estimated usage.
But Chris Gilbride, a spokesman for the Department of Environmental Protection, said that his agency is aggressively cutting its budget. For example, he said, they saved $37 million by reducing estimated bills through installing wireless meter readers.
And the city has been negotiating with the federal government to reduce the mandates. They say that they succeeded in lowering the monetary outlay required for building projects from the 65 percent it was between 2002 and 2012 to 18 percent in the next 10-year period.
“We’re continuing our aggressive efforts to keep the water rate as low as possible,” Gilbride said.
The city distributes more than a billion gallons of water each day to more than eight million New Yorkers. There are roughly 835,000 ratepayers who shoulder that burden.
This article appeared in print on page 1 of edition of Hamodia.
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