It’s funny how years after Alex Knopp left office, Norwalk is still struggling with the poorly thought out policies. Common council members are focused on, the flat sewer usage fees endorsed by Knopp as part of Knopp’s overall strategy of carving out municipal services. Philosophically its an interesting debate to have. Instead of lumping all services to a collective tax assessed on property values, Knopp sought to transfer the burden of some municipal services to those that use those services. In many ways, its not unlike the position that senior citizens should no longer pay taxes that support the school system.
The debate then didn’t exactly happen, which is unfortunate. The one flaw with manipulating municipal revenues to solve for one problem, in this case a politician wanting to have the appearance of “keeping taxes down,” is that in our heavily taxed state, local usage fees are no longer part of the local tax deduction line. Meaning, they join taxable expenses, which in the case of parking maybe makes sense, but sewage really doesn’t make much sense.
Doug Hempstead has been waging his battle against the flat fees for other reasons. The Hour reports:
Hempstead said the current flat-fee system works against people trying to conserve water. A single person living alone shouldn’t pay the same as a five-person household, he added.
Carvin J. Hilliard, a Democrat and chairman of the finance committee, also voted ‘No.’
“They’re charging everybody $225. I didn’t think it was fair to be charging a smaller house the same (as a larger house),” Hilliard told The Hour last month.
The WCPA already has approved the new sewer-use fees for 2008-09. Starting July 1, the annual flat fee for residential sewer users will be $225. Owners of commercial and mixed-use properties using more than 110,000 gallons will pay $325 plus $5.80 for every 1,000 gallons over that amount.
The council has yet to vote on the 2008-09 operating budget — of which the fees are a revenue source.
For now, Hempstead, Hilliard and others are awaiting the outcome of the WPCA meeting Monday night.
“The board will direct the staff to prepare a report on how consumption-based billing would work, what the issues are, how we make it happen, all that kind of stuff,” said Harold F. Alvord, the city’s director of public works. “Doing the report is not a hard thing to do. When you get to how you’re going to get the consumption data, (that) is where the challenge is going to be.”
City officials say consumption-based billing requires water usage data, and that the 1st Taxing District has withheld such information. The taxing district maintains such information, at least for residential users, is confidential. The district has offered to perform the billing for the city for an fee.
Mayor Richard A. Moccia said he believes that Norwalk’s sewer-use fees are basically fair. The city’s fees are less than consumption-based bills and on par with flat fees used elsewhere, he said.
In fiscal year 2007-08, Darien charged residential sewer users $384, Bridgeport charged $384, Westport charged $330, Stamford charged $290, Waterbury charged $325, and Wilton charged $165, according to the Norwalk WPCA.
That said, Moccia indicated that he is willing to explore the consumption-based billing.
“Let’s do the study and get this budget passed,” Moccia said.
Meanwhile Mike Geake focuses on another issue.
Michael K. Geake, a Democrat on the Finance Committee, abstained on the vote on the proposed new operating budget. He said the budget, because of its reliance on flat sewer-use fees, violates laws.
“I refuse to vote on a budget that I believe is predicated on the violation of the Norwalk city code and Connecticut general statutes — the flat rate instead consumption,” Geake said.
Alvord rejects that assessment and said outside legal counsel for the WPCA will provide an opinion.
The public works director, meanwhile, said he has asked Robert F. Maslan Jr., head of the city’s law department, to provide an opinion on WPCA operations, if the council does not approve a new operating budget by July 1 — the start of fiscal year 2008-09.
Overall, a whole lot of effort is going into this issue, despite the years that have passed after the policy was implemented. While the pace of government can be numbingly slow, sometimes you get well thought out policy have the vim and vigor of good old fashioned debate. Too bad we don’t see more of it in those committee meetings.
“I need to know the answer to that quickly. We’re not going to shut down the treatment plant intentionally,” Alvord said. “But if we don’t have a budget — and that means that the WPCA can’t spend any money, you can’t pay people, you can’t pay for materials, you can’t pay for your electricity — the plant’s going to shut down of its own accord before long.”
According to Alvord, the debate over the proposed new budget jeopardizes up to $37 million in Clean Water Funds, which the WPCA hopes to receive and use to upgrade the treatment plant. Other communities are competing for the funds, and Norwalk could lose the funding, if it doesn’t have a budget and plant operations in order by July 1, according to Alvord.
In 2002, then-Mayor Alex Knopp spearheaded the creation of the WPCA and adoption of flat fees for residential and commercial sewer users. The ideas was to shift sewer system maintenance costs from taxpayers to users.
source: The Hour, DPW to explore sewer consumption fees, By ROBERT KOCH, June 14, 2008
