Department of Environmental Protection Plans a Seven Percent Raise

This might seem like a boring e-mail about water bills but additional increases to the cost of water could have a DISASTEROUS effect on the Bronx housing market. As the press release sent by Councilman Vacca below states, water expense has gone up 78% since 2005. This is an important fight. Kudos to Councilman Vacca for taking on the struggle. Let’s just force everyone into foreclosure so we can then house them in a shelter at a monthly expense of over $4,000 a month. Who needs to raise taxes when you can just jack up water expenses each year.

Gregory
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In what seems to be an annual ritual, Council Member James Vacca is once again continuing his fight against ever-increasing water bills from DEP. This year, DEP has proposed a 7% increase to water rates. Since 2005, water rates have skyrocketed 78% and each year, Vacca and other Council Members have attempted to fight against these hikes.

According to DEP, this year’s proposed rate will raise a single-family homeowner’s water bill approximately $60 per year. The proposed increase was made before the New York City Water Board on Friday, March 30th and the board will hold public hearings later this month. A vote on the proposed hike is scheduled for Friday, May 4th and any rate increase would go into effect on July 1st.

“If this situation sounds familiar, that’s because we have this battle year after year over water rate hikes!” Vacca said. “The NYC Water Board wants to pick our pockets again. This may be the smallest hike we have seen in the last seven years, but an increase still means more money out of our pockets. It seems that the City has no intentions of stopping these yearly increases.”

Vacca urges Bronx residents to attend the New York City Water Board public hearing concerning the proposed rate increase on Wednesday, April 25 at 6:30 p.m. at the Riverdale YM-YWHA at 5625 Arlington Avenue. Vacca has also started a petition drive, urging residents to sign on and return it by Tuesday, April 24. Petitions can be sent via mail or picked up at the Councilman’s office at 3040 E. Tremont Avenue. For more details, residents can reach out to the Councilman’s office at (718) 931-1721 .