Water Rate Increase 42% Why? Here It Is!! City Hall Screw up!

[The West Sider]

More facts, we are told we are talking about only a $300,000 deficit. This increase will pay it all back in a year. I know four or five commercial users alone that will pay half that deficit on their own.

 

 

@

 

Unfortunately, I could not attend any of the meetings.

 

Can someone relay to me and others what the specific reason(s) that was given to them as to why the city is $300,000 in the red? I mean, it couldn't have just crept up on them.

 

Thanks.

 

TWS

[Guest Guest]

Unfortunately, I could not attend any of the meetings.

 

Can someone relay to me and others what the specific reason(s) that was given to them as to why the city is $300,000 in the red? I mean, it couldn't have just crept up on them.

 

Thanks.

 

TWS

Yes- there had been a substantial fund balance for a few years and rather than raise the rates to actually match the cost to run the department for a year, they would take money from the fund to balance the budget. So when the money ran out, they had to raise rates more than the expected 5% a year. Also whoever wrote about the cost of operating going sky high-he was correct. the price of chlorine is out of this world, along with all the other junk they put in to settle the river sediment out. Plus-how much do you think electricity has gone up?

 

[Guest Guest]

Why IS Transue really retiring? I smell a car load od dead FISH!

[Guest Guest]

I'm still wondering why we have to raise the rates 67% in two years when such an increase will more than repay any $300,000 in the first year alone.

 

What will be done with the huge surplus that will accrue after that?

[Guest Guest]

My next door neighbor is a nice lady who has to be at least 80 years old. She lives alone in house that her son helps her maintain. No doubt she's on a rigidly fixed income.

 

I can imagine what she's had to do to pay her water bill. Mine went up more than 250% in the last 3 years BEFORE this latest increase.

 

Why not be a good neighbor and run a hose from your outside faucet to her supply line.

 

 

@

[Guest Guest]

For the last 3 billing periods (approximately 1 year) my Binghamton family of 3 paid about $380 for 165 units (100 cu ft or 748 gallons) of water. For that price we used all the water we needed for bathing, laundry, sanitation,dishes, drinking, watering plants, and washing the car. With a 43% price increase this bill will rise to about $540, or something less than half a penny per gallon. Meanwhile I pay about $600 per year for the basic cable tv package, $1200 if you throw in Internet. I spend about $1300 per year for gasoline for my 30 mpg vehicle.

 

Considering that a couple of billion people on Earth don't have access to clean water at any price, and considering that I can have all I want at less than a half-cent per gallon, I find it kind of hard to get worked up too much by the price increase. Even at several times that price, clean water would be a bargain. I can live without cable or internet or driving if I have to, but about 3 days without water will without a doubt kill me - the human body is after all approximately 50 per cent water. By all means we should ensure that it is provided to us in the most efficient and economical fashion, but since water is literally the essence of life and the biggest material part of me or any other human being, let's keep things in perspective. We value our lives pretty cheaply if we grumble too much about the cost of this still ultimately very affordable natural resource.

 

 

@

[Guest Guest]

What a load of bull.

 

Another Ryan apologist.

 

Due to sheer incompetence, mismanagement and gross negligence we are being saddled with a 67% increase in two years.

 

We are told it is about a $300,000 defciit. This increase more than repays that in less than a year. What then?

 

Why will we keep paying to build a surplus? Only to cover Ryan's waste and mismanagement elsewhere?

[Guest Guest]

For the last 3 billing periods (approximately 1 year) my Binghamton family of 3 paid about $380 for 165 units (100 cu ft or 748 gallons) of water. For that price we used all the water we needed for bathing, laundry, sanitation,dishes, drinking, watering plants, and washing the car. With a 43% price increase this bill will rise to about $540, or something less than half a penny per gallon. Meanwhile I pay about $600 per year for the basic cable tv package, $1200 if you throw in Internet. I spend about $1300 per year for gasoline for my 30 mpg vehicle.

 

Considering that a couple of billion people on Earth don't have access to clean water at any price, and considering that I can have all I want at less than a half-cent per gallon, I find it kind of hard to get worked up too much by the price increase. Even at several times that price, clean water would be a bargain. I can live without cable or internet or driving if I have to, but about 3 days without water will without a doubt kill me - the human body is after all approximately 50 per cent water. By all means we should ensure that it is provided to us in the most efficient and economical fashion, but since water is literally the essence of life and the biggest material part of me or any other human being, let's keep things in perspective. We value our lives pretty cheaply if we grumble too much about the cost of this still ultimately very affordable natural resource.

 

 

@

 

If you can afford it, great for you.

the problem I see is there is a sizeable amount of older people still living here who probably can't afford it very easily. Most of them have lived here all their lives, worked here, raised kids here (some of whom then moved away) and are now retired on fixed incomes.

My next door neighbor is one such lady. She lives alone in a house that her and her now deceased husband probably paid off years ago. Her son comes over to shovel snow, etc.

She has no car. She walks to the Giant, slowly.

She minds her own business and goes to church on Sundays.

 

Come on over and tell her not to mind Ryan's bungling of the city budget. Maybe you can help her decide which days to eat and which days to bathe.

[Guest Guest]

Se can take solace that she is helping to pay for Tarik Abdelazim's social justice and equality....