By Alex Robinson
City Councilmen from northeast Queens called on Mayor Bill de Blasio last week to put an end to inflated water rates.
“For about 10 years now the city has been ripping off middle-class New Yorkers who pay water rates that are far in excess of what it costs to run our water and sewage system,” Councilman Rory Lancman (D-Fresh Meadows) told reporters in front of a park in Fresh Meadows last week. “We’ve had our pockets picked by a city that has been voracious in trying to raise revenue from wherever it could.”
Water rates are set annually by the city Water Board and have gone up by at least 5 percent every year since fiscal year 2007.
In recent years, the rent charged to the Water Board has exceeded the amount necessary to pay for the city’s water and sewer-related debt service, meaning the city had revenue left over which it pumped into its general budget.
In this fiscal year, $155 million of funds paid in water rates will be used to prop up the budget rather than to improve water infrastructure, Lancman said.
Councilmen Mark Weprin (D-Oakland gardens) and Paul Vallone (D-Bayside) signed a letter Lancman sent to the mayor, asking him to lower rates to what they need to be so they only cover operating costs.
“I’m urging the mayor to honor his commitment to eliminate these hidden taxes and not charge residents for a cost greater than what the system’s infrastructure requires,” Lancman said at the March 20 event.
In his mayoral campaign and as city public advocate, de Blasio criticized former Mayor Michael Bloomberg for using revenue from water hikes for the city’s general budget.
De Blasio recently appointed Emily Lloyd as his commissioner for the city Department of Environmental Protection, who oversaw some of the highest rises in water rates in recent memory — including a 14.5 percent hike in fiscal year 2009 — during her previous stint in the position under Bloomberg.
The mayor expressed his commitment to addressing the problem at a news conference last week, when a reporter asked him about increasing water rates.
“My goal is to reduce any charges that are not related directly to water,” he said. “We’re going to have to do that over time as we deal with a lot of financial challenges. But it’s something that I’m committed to doing over time.”
Although Lancman did not offer an alternative revenue stream for the money the city’s coffers would lose by a rate freeze, he said it was the mayor’s job to figure it out.
“If we’re going to have a budget in a city that’s progressive, transparent and fair, that budget cannot be composed of fleecing or taking advantage of different segments of the New York family,” Lancman said. “Stop taking our money and figure out where you’re going to fill that budget hole yourself.”
Lancman said ever-increasing rates is a problem that particularly affects northeast Queens and that his office has heard many complaints about the issue over the years. A number of civic leaders from the area joined the councilman to decry the ever-increasing rates.
“It’s impossible for us to survive these increases,” said Yolanda Delacruz-Gallagher, a board member of the Fresh Meadows Homeowners Civic Association. “The simple gift of sustenance is a right [and] one we need to survive. Years ago, you paid $30 to $50. Now you have to watch every drop that comes from the faucet.”
Rosa Chong, another board member of the Fresh Meadows Homeowners Civic Association, said her water bill has risen from $50 per month when she first moved here 12 years ago to around $150 per month now.
“I live alone and don’t use much water. And yet the bill keeps going up and up,” she said. “It means I have to cut down on other things.”
Reach reporter Alex Robinson by e-mail at arobinson@cnglocal.com or by phone at 718-260-4566.
