One of the many tax increases enacted by the Ballard administration with the support of our Indianapolis City-County Council was new storm water fee increases that are tacked on to your property tax bills. The method for calculating the fees, known as Base Billing Units, caused the fees of some property owners, including farmland, to increase as much as $7,500. As a consequence, a landowner paying about $27 a year suddenly got billed for more than $2,000. Councilors Jack Sandlin (R) and Aaron Freeman (R) sponsored a proposal that amended the storm water fee law to cap the amount a landowner can be billed to $264 per year, which the council approved last night.
"This isn’t a perfect solution, but it’s a huge step in the right direction," Sandlin said. "Now, we need to continue evaluating fee increases on businesses in our community, while adequately addressing the ongoing storm water concerns of our neighbors." "Fees are just taxes cloaked in nicer language," Freeman added. "In this case, those new storm water ‘taxes’ hit some large residential land owners with increases of 7500%
or more. That’s unacceptable. Immediately, we knew we needed to take action." It's worth noting that both Sandlin and Freeman warned their fellow councilors this might occur when the original proposal was voted on, but their concerns were ignored over their opposition.
12 comments:
I own 4 unit apartment buildings in Center Township. I got a combined water/sewer bill last week for $867 on one of the buildings; a bill that should have been $125. A few years ago it would have been $40. Of course I called Citizens energy, and they basically told me to get stuffed. I had one plumber out to inspect the house, and he couldn't find anything. I had another out and he found a toilet with a bad flapper. The plumbers cost almost $400. I called back to Citizens and told them I had a running toilet, and that it had been fixed, and it was 5 days until they were going to deduct $867 from my account, and would they make some kind of adjustment, that it was Christmas. And they basically told me to get stuffed. So what have I learned? Don't let your toilets run in Center Township. Although as a landlord for 25 years I already knew that. But I also learned that water, which is essentially an almost free commodity that falls from the sky, can be used as a financial weapon. And that even elderly homeowners with the best intentions can have their budgets ruined, and their Christmas ruined, by a water company that really couldn't care less. I'm not complaining. But I live very modestly on the east side of Indianapolis, and I'm a caring property owner that already gives a great deal to my elderly and disabled tenants, and I only try to get the houses in repair and everybody warm and snug. And there are so many horrible owners. I feel like Indianapolis has abandoned me, and I wonder what possibly can happen next.
They should make them give refunds and make it retroactive a year.
I don't really know what these storm water fees are, although I think I paid extra for it this past year on my property taxes. It's something different from the increases in water and sewer bills, isn't it? Shouldn't we characterize those as "tax increases" too? Maybe the General Assembly should do something at the State level about all this. If we can't pay all these new costs having to do with water and sewer and storm bills can they take the house. I heard in Detroit they are shutting off the water to a third of the houses because they are behind.
"Fees are just taxes cloaked in nicer language." I agree. Finally, local government officials are willing to address the storm water "user fee" misnomer. Hopefully, someone will sponsor a bill to amend and clarify the Storm Water Act.
Pursuant to IC 8-1.5-5-5 Special taxing district (b) All the territory within the district constitutes a Special Taxing District for the purpose of providing for the collection and disposal of storm water of the district in a manner that protects the public health and welfare and for the purpose of levying Special Benefits TAXES for purposes of storm water collection and disposal. In contradiction, IC 8-1.5-5-7 Financing of facilities; User Fees states (a) The acquisition, construction, installation, operation, and maintenance of facilities and land for storm water systems may be financed through ... the board, after holding a public hearing ... and obtaining the approval of the fiscal body of the unit served by the department, may assess and collect User Fees from all of the property of the storm water district for the operation and maintenance of the storm water system. IC 36-1-2-18 defines "Special taxing district" as a geographic area within which a Special TAX may be levied and collected on an ad valorem basis on property for the purpose of financing local public improvements that are: (1) not political or governmental in nature; and (2)of special benefit to the residents and property of the area.
There is no bright-line test for distinguishing between a connection/use fee and a special assessment; generally, a "fee" is exchanged for a service rendered or a benefit conferred, and some reasonable relationship exists between the amount of the fee and the value of the service or benefit, while a "special assessment" is a specific levy designed to recover the costs of improvements that confer local and peculiar benefits upon property within a defined area. "User fees" are those which are charged only to the person actually using the service, and the amount of the charge generally is related to the actual goods or services provided and is a monthly charge rather than a one-time charge. 70C Am.Jur.2d, Special or Local Assessments § 2, at 631-32 (2000)
City of Gainesville v. State, 863 So.2d 138, 144-45 (Fla. 2003)
The storm water fees are a substitute for a property tax increase, although it's included on your property tax bill and becomes a lien on your property no different that your property tax bill. It doesn't count towards the property tax caps. It's just another part of the equation overlooked by the Indiana Fiscal Policy Institute when it wrote its propaganda report trying to demonize property tax caps. The storm water fees are primarily used to pay off the campaign contributors, who are allowed to grossly inflate their fees to recoup the money they give to the campaigns of the mayor, council members and political party committees.
"Fees"
Hmm. I thought this was Indiana, not California...
Not so sure about the fees being used for buying assholes. EPA those who are on the "green" end of the spectrum often devise expensive programs designed to increase their own power and influence. The misuse of Federal Regulations then are imposed on both State and Local governments. A good example would be the separation of storm water from sanitary water flows so as to lessen pollution in our rivers. 100 years ago these were considered the epitome of public health measures such that at great expense they were constructed above ground in Chicago and then built around. A few hundred years earlier herds of buffalo crossed the White River in the millions and each of them shat a load into the White River both coming to the forests and then again on the way back to the plains. U.S. 40 is an old buffalo trail. Be that as it may, EPA had no ability to tax these things into existence but could mandate them because our congressmen wanted that. Now, if you are the Mayor of Indianapolis where did you find the funds for this stupidity (instead of your own creations)? Well, let's tax rainfall since it is somewhat related to the need for storm sewers. Instead of fixing EPA our congresspeople have decided to grow government and lighten the wallets of their voters.
The storm water fees are not related to the problem with the combined water/sewage overflow problems that have contributed to the quadrupling of sewer/water rates. This is new money they are raising to spend on flood control projects. It seems that none of the money spent for that purpose since UniGov was enacted actually achieved any meaningful results so they figured they would come up with a bunch more costly projects the fat cat engineers can scheme up to address the problems none of the prior flood control projects managed to do anything about.
My home and 11 others have storm sewers, they were put in by the developer 23 years ago. The rain water, melted snow runs through them into a very large retention pond! I'm sure if they got clogged the city would say "it's your problem". But yet we pay whatever the set price is.
People who owned large tracts of land on the south side complained that they take care of cleaning out ditches adjacent to their property but downstream the city allowed them to get clogged, which causes floodwaters to back upstream on to the property of people who maintain their ditches.
Hurray, only a 1000% increase!
I live on a street with no sidewalks, no curbs, no storm water drains and our rainwater runoff goes into a creek and then to White River. But I still get the 'privilege' of paying storm water fees. Doesn't that amount to taxation without representation?
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