It’ll cost more per flush if the proposed increase passes.
Seven months after Red Bank officials siphoned off $270,000 from the borough-owned water utility to keep a lid on municipal taxes, they’re planning to jack up water and sewer rates by 10 percent.
An ordinance changing the rate, which was quietly introduced at the last borough council meeting, is up for public hearing and possible adoption Monday night.
The increase follows a 10-percent increase in 2008 that was said to be necessary to offset the costs of infrastructure repairs. The pending boost was proposed by the council’s finance committee, says Mayor Pasquale Menna. The committee is headed by Councilman Mike DuPont, who was not immediately available for comment this morning.
What’s the rationale?
“To balance the budget and also keep the utility operating soundly,” says Menna.
To balance the utility budget, or the municipal budget, redbankgreen asked him.
“Both,” he said.
Referring to a difficult fiscal environment made more challenging with Gov. Chris Christie’s cuts in local aid and the elimination of rebates to seniors, “which is, in effect, a tax increase,” Menna said, “I don’t know how our budget is going to shape up.
“We tried to do a move on difficult, employee-related adjustments, and you saw what happened,” he said. “The council backed off. Now, there will have to be some dramatic cuts, and perhaps furloughs and layoffs.”
Here’s the proposed ordinance: 2010-12ordinance
If you saw Christie this morning you see how serious he is about cutting the size of government in NJ. Cutting back funds to the municipalities is forcing us to cut the size of local government as well, its something we have to live with or pay more taxes. I vote for less service, if I have to take my recyclables to the dumb myself or 1 day less of garbage collection so be it.
It should never have come to either more taxes or less service. These bloated public/state/municipal employee contracts should’ve never been. But you are right, nothing can be done about that now. They are contractually obligated. They have us over the barrel so to speak. So, it’s down to more taxes or less services. I too say less services.
Sell the Water Company to NJ American Water Company and sewer to Two Rivers Sewerage Authority like all the other towns have done. Red Bank Water only exists as a secret tax and to keep some friends employed. NJ American Water and two rivers are a lot less expensive which would help the residents in these hard times. The town should receive millions of dollars in the sale and can use that money to either pay down its debt or invest it and use the interest to help offset property taxes.
Look at the schools. RB is 16,500 per student. We employ 576 people in the schools.
When the City Administrator negotiates the public contracts for his friends there is a conflict. I have never seen a municipal contract go down.
In my street we are going to have almost 50% of the huses for sale by June, not because of foreclosures but they are getting out. The playing field is not level. How can a government employee negotiate an contract for another government employee.
I agree with TomFace…sell the utilities. Money for the budgets and better, cheaper water from a professionally run system should be a no brain-er w/ the exception that the idiots are running the asylum and will never give up a cent of tax they can collect.
selling the water dept will only raise your taxes the borough offsets the taxes with the revenue the utility raises
My water was brown yesterday. Get putrid water one day and the news it will cost more the next. Can anybody tell me where to return this sewage for a refund?
yeayo,
You are correct that it is possible that your property taxes will go up but they are overcharging you for water and sewer so the net amount out of your pocket should be equal. You can also deduct property taxes on your tax return, so you may pay less taxes to the IRS. Only investors can deduct water and sewer from their taxes as an operating expense for the property. They can then generate money or pay off debt with the millions from the sale of the water company which if handled properly should actually lower your property taxes.
My mother always said, bless her soul, “There’s no such thing as a free lunch”. There’s a reason why NJ is in the top 10 rated states out of the entire country for reading/math/admissions to College/perentage graduation, etc. We invest a lot of money in education. In Alabama, Florida, etc. where taxes are lower, kids are failing, not reading, teachers are let go mid-year, etc. No offense, but if I’m hiring someone to work for me, give me a NJ high school graduate over an Alabama graduate or other low-performing state, any time.
so, yes, lose your services..cut back on education… call me back in 15 years when you’re whining about your kids not getting a good job or going to college. Mom, you were right.
Tomato Face,
The rationale that the Council has given is that they can’t tax non-profits, but they can jack everyone’s water rates, thus getting money out of non-profits, which they can’t do with property taxes.
You’re probably right, though, that the income tax difference for residents is probably greater than any savings from payments from non-profits.
In Third World Countries, they are underdeveloped, why?Most cases CORRUPTION of the govt is rampant.
NJ….quickly becoming a Third World ‘State’. Just look at the condition of our roads and public transport. And our fiscal mess.
CORRUPTION has been and is rampant in NJ.
Do I dare say we see a common theme here? And evidence of what corruption of a govt can cause?
Paraphrasing our elected official in charge of the Finance Committee:
“We don’t have a cost issue, we have a revenue issue” - Mike DuPont
Revenue = taxes/water rates/fines/fees.
I agree with tomatoe face, we get raped as it is with the water bills, I’ll take an increase in my taxes if it’ll save me a little money…. and yeah lets not mention the brown water on a monthly basis that is way toooooo high in iron to start off with
selling the water rights and the inventory , they the borough was offered 5 to 6 million dollars from nj american i beleive that was 1990 so adjust that price to 2010 lets say 10 million dollars how much does that really save you over a ten year period but once the water rights are gone they are gone foreever you are not getting it back see my point tom
I’ve had it with these boneheads. It seems like everytime they make a move to fix a problem, their solutions create new problems!
Perhaps we should all go to a public building when we have to drop a deuce? It’s time to fight the (sewer) system!
I say we all go to Borough Hall to drop a deuce!
this is disturbing and disgusting and another reason why the T-Bagger - neo-con right are simply a bunch of fucking assholes.
http://www.buzzfeed.com/donnad/tea-party-verbally-abuse-parkinsons-victim-bif
this is disturbing and disgusting and another reason why the T-Bagger - neo-con right are simply a bunch of f’n a-holes
http://www.buzzfeed.com/donnad/tea-party-verbally-abuse-parkinsons-victim-bif
These clowns are gone in November.
These clowns were supposed to gone last November. What happened?
People were not angry enough, that has changed.
$16, 500 per student?? That can’t be right. Is that really true?
My kids go to a pretty nice private school and that is more than tuition + uniforms + nuisance fees for BOTH of them COMBINED!
Can anyone verify whether that’s a legit number?
Don’t sell the H20! you guys are wrong once its out of the towns hands the rates will be even higher!
Sell the water co.
Well, the state lists a “comparitive cost per pupil” of $14,693 (http://www.state.nj.us/education/guide/2009/k-8.pdf), but I’m not sure how that’s calculated. If you divide the total budget by the number of students, the number is higher.
Outhouse = taxable?
build a rain barrel:
http://www.marc.org/Environment/Water/buildrainbarrel.htm
I respect Christie sticking to his guns, but what do you think is going to happen?
Yeah, we’ll get some gov’t reduction, ok. But the ones feeling the brunt of the pain are the taxpayers. Instead of the reducing the true source of bloat, locals will get laid off and we’ll get reduced services. The corruption and waste are above local levels (at least the most disgusting, egregious kind).
So Christie wants to fight the bloated unions, great. What can he do? Lawyers tell him he’s got breach of contract issues going at them directly, so he threatens layoffs and privatization. But lobbyists pushed through a bill last year that states any government work, whether performed by a gov’t employee or a private contractor must be done by union labor. Maybe he can find a set of private contractors that aren’t burdened by the likes of the same unions we’re dealing with now, but I doubt it. We’re just rearranging chairs, as one other poster put it.
And yes, we do have issues locally. Our council patently sucks at the negotiating table. Yes, they should have been gone last November. I’m still angry, maybe a few more of us are too.
Interesting how things have come full circle. And how history, while often forgotten, sheds much light on the situation today. The party who supported this will surprise some of you too.
-1984: Tom Kean, then Republican Governor, had a study completed to compare the starting salaries at that time for new teachers. Concerned that “NJ did not compare to other States in the Union, and that we needed to enhance the quality of teachers in the State to ensure NJ public schools did not fail, as failure of public schools would equate to something of the order of a foreign military invasion in terms of levels of disaster’. “That teachers, given their importance, should be paid more like lawyers or doctors.”
- Thereafter, he raised the starting salaries which continued to rise for years thereafter. This at the objection of the NJEA. Why? Because, it skewed the pay scale for existing teachers. Teachers there for 10 years were making the same salary as a new hire.
- Fast forward to today…..2010. Christie is now taking a sledgehammer to education, and teachers. What has changed? Why the all of a sudden disdain:
1) Back in the 80’s and 90’s, public education was the ‘Darling Prize” for politicians. They protected it. Now, as we can see from the falling status of our schools, education is falling apart. In general as a Country it is, which is why we are no longer the #1Economic Power in the World.
2)The belief today is that public education is not viable. That privatization is the answer. But look at attempts to do that, and where they stand today.
Anyway, just an interesting piece of NJ history, which may suprise a few. Note I had forgotten this too, although I was quite young when Kean was in office.
And for the record I am not a teacher. Could never do what they do.
Interestingly enough I had just emailed the DPW for the rates on the water/sewer, which are astronomical.
And btw - the rates should be on the bill - they are not.
I live alone and my quarterly water/sewer bill is 2x (water was 3x as much) that of a friend who is married with two children.
The boro can’t seem to provide us with a quality product at a non-ridiculous rate.
I shouldn’t be paying this amount of money for water that I don’t let my dog drink.
The town serves brown water and the water pressure sucks. In a fair market Red Bank residents should be getting water and a steep discount to it’s neighbor towns. If this is not the case, it would be blatant abuse of a monopoly. Does anybody know how Red Bank stacks up?
lets not forget that for 1/2 of the year the town of Red Bank switches our water supply to NJ American…