Editorial
Water Bd. Threatens Rate Increase For 2nd Year

New York City home and building owners are about to get hit with another water rate hike- again. If it seems like only yesterday we were groaning under the weight of a double-digit increase, that is exactly the case. Last year water rates went up 11.5 percent, and if the city Water Board has its way, by summer water rates in New York City will go up by another 14.5- that's right, fourteen and a half- percent. The proposed hike will slam the average one-family homeowner with another $102 a year, raising the average yearly water bill to $801 from $699. The bill for a typical multifamily unit will go up by $86, to $680 annually from $594.

Water Board Executive Director Steven Lawitts said at a recent two-hour hearing that even with the increase, the city's water rates are lower than those of most big cities in the country and are slightly below the national average. That very well may be the case. However, as with just about every statistic we ever encountered, numbers by themselves are meaningless. New York City water rates may be lower than those of other large American cities, but how do they rank when compared to the cost of living in other municipalities? If it costs less to live in another city, even if that city charges more for water than New York, where is the gain to New York City water customers? Nor does his reasoning admit the fact that New York City is- well- New York City. In many cases, leaving out all the psychological factors that may lead New Yorkers to conclude that they would rather live here than somewhere else, people live here because they can more successfully engage in whatever activity or occupation at which they make their livings more readily here than anywhere else and they need/want/have to. Lawitts is comparing apples and oranges and coming up with a meaningless argument.

The Department of Environmental Protection, which includes among its subordinate entities the Water Board, and the Department of Finance, which issues water bills, have been able to exact payment for some 85 percent of all users of city water and has shut off water to some 15 percent of others. The problem lies in the fact that not all water users use water equally. Cabrini Hospital, off Manhattan's Gramercy Park, for example, has the highest unpaid water bill in New York City. It also is in bankruptcy. Some large apartment complexes are also in default. Water cannot be shut off to such institutions and residential buildings because innocent patients or tenants would suffer. Meanwhile, single-family residences and small apartment buildings get hit in the ice cubes with financial penalties and the imminent threat of having their water turned off.

It is somewhat heartening to know that in all conscience the city cannot turn off water to large building complexes and institutions. However, it must service almost $20 billion in debt to maintain and upgrade the city's vast water and sewer infrastructure. The system must comply with state and federal water purity standards, so much of this investment is mandatory. The Water Authority will issue another $8.51 billion in debt between Fiscal Years 2008 and 2011, according to its capital plan, and no matter how much or how little water New York City residents consume, water rates collected must cover the debt-service costs.

The Water Board, which is comprised of mayoral appointees, will hold public hearings, one in each borough, from May 5 through May 8. They will vote May 16. We urge all New Yorkers who can attend these hearings to do so. If this increase is approved, for the first time since the early 1990s residents will be faced with doubledigit rate hikes for two straight years. (A rate hike of 22.9 percent went into effect in 1991 and another, of 18.5 percent, in 1992.)

We doubt that there are many people in the metropolis who will greet the news of another such increase with cries of joy. The Water Board must be made to see reason, and the only possible way to bring that about is for New York City ratepayers to make their voices heard.