This might have something to do with it
The kids in Portland who complain that their rent is too high always vote for every property tax pitch they're presented with. Then when their landlord passes the tax increase on to them, waaaahh!
And I'll tell you what, the water and sewer bills aren't helping matters, either. We just broke the $500 mark for another quarter. And it was wintertime, when we weren't watering anything in the yard. That's more than two grand a year on top of all the taxes, even if you don't grow any tomatoes. Yet the water bureau continues to platinum-plate its whole system. Nothing's too expensive for those birds. So good luck with that rent, young 'uns.
I pay $125 - 150 per month for a single family house here in Salem, so it isn't much different.
ReplyDeleteWhat can be done?
ReplyDelete$150 for 2 months of water and sewer just across the river. It’s not just the taxes which are lower.
ReplyDeleteBut talk to Washougal residents if you want to hear about real pain from water/sewer charges. I'm on well/septic, but Nextdoor is full of horror stories from there.
DeleteWest Slope, 2 adult household with a half acre judiciously watered yard. At current rates, water and sewer total to an average $125/mo over the year. It sits at about $85 across the winter.
ReplyDeleteIt’s a hidden tax bill not a water bill. The City’s quarterly shakedown!
ReplyDeleteWas planning a minor remodel. That’s now on the back burner. Front burner is considering a relocation. Maybe out of state.
ReplyDeleteAbout $110/mo for water/sewer (with tack on fees for things like street lights) for a family of four in wilsonville.
ReplyDeleteHave you considered a possible water leak somewhere in the line between the street and your house? Do you have good water pressure? Do you have teenagers that take 5 showers a day?
ReplyDeleteNice try. There's no leak. Just major suction on my wallet from the PERS-ies.
DeleteMust be a leak.
DeleteFirst response when calling the water department about a high bill.
Can’t be that we are too much .
It’s ~$60 for 2ccf in Tucson w/weekly 96 gallon garbage in Tucson.
ReplyDeleteCoal power mostly pumps it up hill at huge federal subsidy (CAP project).
Long sunny growing season & agricultural water/ unsustainable agribusiness being the 80% there this?
It’s ~$14-45/mo for unincorporated Clark Co. on septic.
That said, it won’t be septic forever most places/so it’s not like you’re likely a to be grandfathered in indefinitely?
I understand that the sewer is expensive, even without 6x cost over runs (pretty concrete for yuppies on their way To LO on macadam ave) and a bunch of PERS bureaucrats, but how the hell do you take a gravity fed federally protected water system and either sell it out from under us to tualatin Valley affluent suburban and office park sprawling tax dodge garbage or Nestle (ghost of Xmas future/‘yet-to-come (Dickens being paid by the word ‘n all?)? Impressive levels of bad management, being on the take and corruption?
It’s a defacto tax, and it’s pretty asinine, especially on the sewer rate for a town supplied the way it is.
But as others point out, you’re not much better off if sewer connected elsewhere. ($113/mo in LO if you don’t use a drop, pumping uphill from the clackamas river w/huge sewer piping Thru the lake).
If you’re a bureaucrat, all those condos/meter fees X more customers really works in your favor in the defacto regressive tax/pyramid scheme?
Doesn’t really incentivize conservation or inspire confidence for sustainability and does breed resentment.
At leas the water is mostly decent quality to drink (most of the time/so far and appliances don’t die of the chalk water like AZ & SoCal).