New Water-Bill Increase Looming; Public Hearings Scheduled

As the Daily News reported today, the Water Board must first go through public hearings, set for early May (see schedule here ), with the vote scheduled for May 16. The increase would take effect in the fiscal year beginning July 1, and cost building owners, including co-op and condo boards, an additional $290 million.

James Gennaro (D-Queens), chairman of the city council's Environmental Protection Committee and a critic of new increases, told the paper, "I will continue to yell and scream" in opposition.

The Water Board already increased rates 11.5 percent last July — the largest annual increase since 1992. Five months later, it threatened to jack up rates 18 percent more in January 2008 unless City Council passed legislation allowing the NYC Department of Environmental Protection to sell water-bill non-payment liens to outside buyers — even though the DEP itself concedes it has poor billing procedures and records, leading to buyers who can now sue building-owners for even incorrectly billed amounts.

— Frank Lovece