By Michael V. Cusenza
City Councilman Jim Gennaro (D-Hillcrest) confronted the City Water Board at last week’s public hearing on the newly proposed water rate for Fiscal Year 2025.
The Department of Environmental Protection is proposing that the Water Board approve an 8.5-percent water rate increase this summer, passing this cost onto city ratepayers. This pojected increase would double last year’s rate hike and make it the highest rate hike in over a decade, financially burdening all New Yorkers, but most especially the most vulnerable populations, Gennaro said.
The chairman of the Council Committee on Environmental Protection, Resiliency, and Waterfronts said he is deeply disturbed by Mayor Eric Adams’ plan to divert more than $1.4B in revenue from New Yorkers’ water and sewer charges over the next four years in what Gennaro characterized as a “hidden tax” to help balance the City budget. As a result, the Department of Environmental Protection is proposing a whopping water rate increase this summer.
Gennaro noted that while the board cannot deny the mayor the so-called “rental payment” if Hizzoner requests it, they can make a statement on behalf of ratepayers and protest the hidden tax. He also noted that it is their moral duty to look out for the best interests of Gotham ratepayers.
“This is your moment. You are the only entity that doesn’t have an ulterior motive and whose only mission is to protect the rate payers of New York City,” Gennaro said to the board. “Now, legally, you can’t deny the mayor his money, but you can make a statement. You can resign.”
According to a New York Times report, “How a ‘Hidden’ $1.4 Billion Tax Will Make N.Y.C. Water Bills Rise (May 3, 2024),’” the average single family city homeowner pays $1,088 a year for water. Landlords pay for water but pass along the costs to tenants. The proposed increase would cost approximately another $93 a year. But low-income New Yorkers pay more as a share of income than wealthier New Yorkers.
This “backdoor tax,” as Gennaro put it, has been around for decades—but was done away with by Bill de Blasio seven years ago. Facing fiscal woes in a post-COVID and migrant crisis era, Adams is resurrecting this hidden tax—with little transparency, the councilman said.
According to the Water Board, the six-member panel:
- Will consider an increase in the metered and unmetered water and wastewater rates and rate-based billing programs that are currently in effect by a percentage amount not to exceed 8.5 percent and to assess wastewater charges at 159-percent of water charges for services provided on and after July 1, 2024.
- In addition, the Board will consider the following proposals that would be effective on and after July 1, 2024: Minimum Charge: maintaining the minimum charge for meter-billed customers at $0.49 per day for water service, and wastewater charges of 159-percent of water charges; Customer Assistance Programs: reauthorization of the Home Water Assistance Program and the Multi-family Water Assistance Program in accord with the same program terms described in the Board’s Rate Schedule that first took effect on July 1, 2022, authorizing bill credits of $145 per eligible property and $250 per eligible affordable apartment unit, respectively; Multi-family Conservation Program: extending the administrative compliance deadline until June 30, 2025
“I am demanding that this board do whatever it can. Resign, make a statement and make sure that this atrocity does not go forward in the future,” Gennaro said as he pounded on the podium at PS 721 in Elmhurst.
