HEAVEN SPENT
City reviews $22M water gift to religious groups
HOLY H20! The city’s 4,067 religious institutions get mostly free water for their churches, synagogues and mosques under a godly gift dating back to 1887.
The generous setup and other water and sewer fee exemptions cost the city $22 million in 2011, according to the Independent Budget Office.
Meanwhile, the average family’s water bill has increased 69% from $554 a year in 2005 to $939 a year today.
All told, the city is drowning in more than $600 million in unpaid invoices from homeowners and businesses, despite putting liens on 86,792 properties between 2008 and 2012, records show.
Advocates of the current setup note that the religious perks amount to less than 1% of the $2.8 billion in total water and sewer collections.
But the city’s independent budget watchdog said the religious waiver should be reviewed.
“It still makes sense to periodically reevaluate the rationale behind the break on water bills, just like it makes sense to review any kind of spending on an ongoing basis,” said Doug Turetsky, director of the Independent Budget Office.
Last year, the Bloomberg administration tried to save an estimated $17 million by charging churches, museums and colleges for trash re- moval. But the proposal was removed from the budget after major opposition from religious groups and city pols — including Mayorelect Bill de Blasio, who warned the fees would cut into charitable organizations’ ability to provide basic services to needy neighborhoods.
Still, his newly appointed first deputy mayor, Anthony Shorris, has advocated forcing nonprofits and religious institutions to pay more.
“Great universities, foundations and private hospitals should pay some taxes, or make ‘voluntary contributions’ toward the services they receive,” Shorris wrote in a New York Times Op-Ed in 1990.
As for the water freebie, some groups never sign up for the exemption, leading to large unpaid bills. The city does not grant any retroactive exemptions.
The top H20 deadbeats include two yeshivas and a church in East New York, Brooklyn.
Klausenberg yeshiva owes nearly $200,000 after going years without applying for the exemption. The second biggest deadbeat is a Satmar yeshiva swimming in $89,000 in water bill debt, according to records obtained by the Daily News.
And the Grace Christian Church of Adventists is the third biggest scofflaw, owing $86,000 after the city rejected its application for undisclosed reasons. Not all of the holy water is free. Under the law, religious institutions get up to $242 per day free, with any charges above that, until $484, getting a 50% discount.