Posted on 02/04/2019 7:42:43 PM PST by Coleus
Every time it rains, it could be raining pennies from property owners if Gov. Phil Murphy signs legislation that could end up taxing stormwater runoff. The Assembly last week passed a bill that would allow for the creation of local or regional stormwater utilities. The utilities would have the power to collect fees from properties with large paved surfaces such as parking lots.
The state Senate version of the bill passed in June. Both bills advanced along party lines, with most Democrats in favor. State Sens. Christopher "Kip" Bateman, R-Somerset, a sponsor of the bill, and Sam Thompson, R-Middlesex, were the only Republicans to support it. Republicans have derisively nicknamed the legislation a "rain tax." That's not to be confused with a possible "water tax" that state Sen. Bob Smith, D-Middlesex, has proposed in order to upgrade the state's aging tap water infrastructure. Smith, who also championed the stormwater utility bill now on Murphy's desk, last year called runoff from storms "the last frontier in water pollution."
Most states have stormwater utilities that collect and filter runoff from storms. In New Jersey, most of that water gets diverted into streams, rivers and bays — in the process, collecting pollution that contaminates the waterways. The Barnegat Bay, for example, has been damaged by runoff that contains lawn fertilizers.
The New Jersey League of Conservation Voters supports creating these utilities, saying that it would also help reduce flooding caused by storms. Opponents of the legislation said it amounted to another burden on taxpayers. During his first term, Gov. Chris Christie vetoed a bill that would have allowed the creation of utilities to handle runoff headed to the Barnegat Bay. The utilities would have been allowed to tax developers.
Assemblyman John McKeon, D-Essex, said the bill was 10 years in the making and addresses a threat to New Jersey’s water quality: nonpoint source pollution. “When it rains and there’s fertilizer, road salt, animal waste, insecticides – all those things get into our water system. And we’re at a crisis stage,” McKeon said. “It’s amazing, only 5 percent of New Jersey’s water complies with federal clean water standards,” he said. “We have a $16 billion problem.”
“While this bill permits stormwater utilities, it won’t actually solve this massive problem,” said Henry Gajda, public policy associate for the New Jersey League of Conservation Voters. “It does mark a good first common sense step to address this need on a local level.” But Dennis Hart, executive director of the Chemistry Council of New Jersey, said new fees for wastewater utilities, on top of what the state already charges for permits, would be bad for the state economy.
“Adding a whole new layer of new government agencies with taxing authority, and in this case the ability to tax rainfall, is not going to help solve our fiscal crisis,” Hart said. Gov. Phil Murphy has until mid-March to sign or veto the legislation. Assemblyman Christopher DePhillips, R-Bergen, said the law would drive up debt through "unlimited bonding."
“The last thing this state needs is more debt and another runaway tax. Especially one that taxes the weather,” DePhillips said. Assemblyman Hal Wirths, R-Sussex, a former labor commissioner under Christie, dismissed the legislation as "just another tax, a rain tax on the people of New Jersey."
“I don’t know if a snow tax is coming next year and I’m not being sarcastic,” Wirths said. The Office of Legislative Services, which provided a financial analysis of the bill before it was brought to a vote, said the potential costs of the legislation are "indeterminate." The analysis looked at the utility in Bellevue, Washington, which gets 93 percent of its funding through user fees. The utility's average combined bill for water, sewage and runoff services ranged from $163 for single-family homes to $17,767 for commercial properties.
Everyone who bothered to read information about U.N Agenda 21 knew this was coming, and knows the real reason why.
And it has zero to do with taxes.
a few threads down, I observed that perhaps mismanagement in NY would be thing thing that saved NJ. I now see the fallacy in my reasoning.
[[When it rains and there’s fertilizer, road salt, animal waste, insecticides – all those things get into our water system. And we’re at a crisis stage,” McKeon said.]]
So are they looking to filter all rain that falls on the entire state?
This is simply a way to add yet more bureaucracy as a means to collect more cash from the serfs.
It’s probably not legal to collect rain water in NJ either.
Kick ‘em while they’re up, kick while they’re down ...
It’s also discouraged or maybe even illegal for youth groups to have car-wash fundraisers because it’s against the law to have soapy water enter the storm sewers!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Congratulations New Joysey! Good job.
Never let facts get in the way of a good FReeper rant.
We’ll tax the pennies on your eyes ...
How does taxing water prevent it from contaminating itself? Why not just ban rain?
Build a wall to prevent it from entering the system.
anyone heard about the houses in Albany NY? Their sewage system was connected to a storm drain. Since 1905 raw sewage has been draining into the Hudson river. LOL yuk
Phil Murphy signs legislation that could end up taxing stormwater runoff.
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Already doing so in at least one blue country in North Florida. Strange, the water still goes into the ground and eventually enters the aquifer, but a homeowner is taxed because their roof, sidewalk, or driveway interrupts the flow.
Remove paving from all public facilities. Let them park and walk in the mud.
“you read it right, the socialist democrats in the PRNJ will now tax, Rain. “
And next, they’re going to “roll out” Penile Pedometers to measure the amount of sexual activity you engage in! Of course women will be “exempted!”
We have no storm drainage near our home, there are no plans for the city to put storm drainage near our home. We have no pavement. The water that runs down the street comes down our driveway and onto our land where it is absorbed into the ground. Yet we pay $60 a month for “surface water runoff for our house and driveway and a couple hundred dollars a month more for the land that absorbs the storm water. It is nothing but a tax, but they call it a user fee.
“Remove paving from all public facilities. Let them park and walk in the mud.”
Don’t laugh! Here in the little town in NorCal where we live, my neighbor built an additional detached two-car garage to house his ski boat. About 1,000 sf. The Town charged him a fee for “covering up the ground!” Seems as though they found a nifty way to get money for “stormwater management.” Funnier still, they rejected our plan to put in dry wells to accept our roof runoff when we built our home, telling us that they “wanted” all our runoff to be directed onto hard surfaces so that it could be “managed,” instead of being allowed to “recharge the groundwater!” Go figure! I guess at the end of the day they just want to create situations that they can “manage!”
Illegal eggs on your plate and tax on the weather. “New Jersey and you, perfect together” - Gov. Tom Kaine.
Ahh....tax the rain. Maryland ‘RATS did it and that’s a major reason why we have a Republican Governor now — and NO RAIN TAX!
For me, it cost $ 90.00 a year, I live on 5 acres, I would argue somewhere to moderately or heavily with trees, or put another way between house (25' Ft. x 40' Ft.) & yard, plus the shop (36' Ft. x 48' Ft.)
I have no paved driveway's, it's either just plain old dirt, or where I do park my vehicles, what they call crush gravel 5/8" in. minus. approx 30' ft. X 30' ft.
Property Taxes for 2019 will be $3,494.66 for the year, or $1,747.33 in two Installment(s) due on the following Dates: 04/30/2019 & 10/31/2019.
I live in Snohomish County. Snohomish pronounced as Snow-Home-ish.
Public Works is the largest department in the Snohomish County government. During 2017, the department had: • 598 full time employees • 27 temporary employees • 126 seasonal employees • 14 interns • 3 supported employees
Total {Snohomish County} Public Works Budget for 2017 (Total dollars) $227.6M
Surface Water 17% (of the already two year's old budget above) $39.2M
You just got to see the shopping list of stuff these people want to do with their budget.
If your a Tax payer, let me take this moment to say thank you for your donation to my county, from those very hard earned tax dollar's of your's. What am I talking about, see below:
But apparently, only rain that falls on paved surfaces rather than roofs.
Control
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