Committee supports sewer rate hike
TROY, N.Y. >> A proposed 17.5 percent increase in city sewer rates took its first step to becoming reality Tuesday night as a City Council committee gave its unanimous support three months after the idea was initially shelved.
Members of the council’s Public Utilities Committee agreed the increase — which is estimated to cost the average homeowner about $40 a year — is necessary to continue funding the city’s $35 million share of a state-mandated effort to eliminate the release of raw sewage into the Hudson River. The increase would result from a change in the formula the city uses to calculate its sewer rate from 75 percent of its water rate to 100 percent, with Superintendent of Public Utilities Chris Wheland saying the city’s sewer rate would increase from $2.92 per 1,000 gallons to $3.43.
A $140 million, multi-municipality plan developed at the behest of the state Department of Environmental Conservation also includes the cities of Albany, Cohoes, Rensselaer and Watervliet and the village of Green Island and specifically targets the release of sewage into the river whenever stormwaer systems are overwhelmed by heavy rain or other runoff. Troy officials expect to fund much of its cost through bonds that will be paid off over the next 12 years, but Wheland said former Mayor Lou Rosamilia failed to include enough funding for the threeyear-old program, leaving him to choose between performing work to prevent catastrophes like the February collapse of a sewer line that caused a massive sinkhole on Campbell Avenue and addressing state and federal mandates to reduce the amount of sewage flushed into the river.
The rate hike, Wheland explained, would guarantee the city continues to meet its commitment to the project at least through the next three or four years. That local cost was also responsible for a nearly 50 percent rate hike in 2013 and a 31 percent jump two years later, officials have said.
“Without adjusting the rate now, rates would have to double or triple in those years,” Wheland explained.
The proposal was initially introduced in November, as the council was in the midst of contentious negotiations on the 2017 city budget, and members agreed through the Finance Committee to delay consideration until that budget was in place. With the Public Utilities Committee approval Tuesday, the proposal will now be returned to the Finance Committee for consideration at its Thursday night meeting before going to the full council for a final vote, possibly later that night.
“What we’re trying to accomplish here is to lock in good business practices that are bulletproof over the next few years,” said Councilman John Donohue, R-District 6, chairman of the Public Utilities Committee.
Both the state Comptroller’s Office and an independent auditor hired by the council last year recommended the city set up a reserve account to set aside money to repay the bonds, but council President Carmella Mantello has said that while she agrees with those recommendations, she envisioned that account being filled with state and federal grant money and other revenue that doesn’t come directly from city residents. Though she did not attend the Public Utilities Committee meeting, she posted later Tuesday night on her Twitter account that she remains opposed to the increase, despite the support of the three fellow Republicans — District 3’s Dean Bodnar and District 2’s Mark McGrath, as well as Donohue — on the Public Utilities Committee.
“I do not support #troyny Mayor’s proposed 17.5% sewer rate increase,” Mantello tweeted. “Council Public Utilities approved this eve to Council Finance Thurs eve.”
Mantello has called on the city to do business differently than it has in the past, and Bodnar said this vote does just that.
“This is not some kind of willy-nilly thing because someone thinks there’s not enough money in the sewer fund,” he said. “This is about good planning. We’re trying to do something now so we don’t get hit with the shock we did [when Mayor Patrick Madden unveiled a proposed city budget with a 28.5 percent property tax increase.”
Wheland said the city has already saved about $1 million on its costs by using its own crews to perform some project-related work, such as upgrades to the stormwater system in and around Monument Square in downtown Troy. He said the city is also talking to neighboring Watervliet and Green Island about allowing them to use DPU workers, which he said would not only save money for those communities, but also allow Troy to recoup some of its costs.
Deputy City Comptroller Andy Piotrowski also pointed out that while the final 14.5 percent property tax increase agreed to in the 2017 city budget didn’t apply to tax-exempt city properties, the sewer rate increase would be borne by any property owner that uses the service. He said that the rate hike would cost St. Peter’s Health Partners — which operates both Samaritan and St. Mary’s hospitals, as well as other health care facilities around the city — and Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute about an additional $61,000 a year.
“They all pay water [and sewer] rates on their usage, so it hits them considerably,” Piotrowski explained.