Friday, September 3, 2010

Water Rates Going Up 8%



Posted by: Noël Jones


Brace yourselves--according to the Express Times article by Ed Sieger on Wednesday, our water rates are about to go up. Why is it that even in a recession costs continue to get passed on to the struggling customers in the community? Just how much does our society think the middle class can be squeezed before there is no middle class any more?


Time to get out the rain barrels!


(Look at the bright side--we aren't yet able to set our tap water on fire, like the folks of Dimock, PA two hours north of us, thanks to hydrofracking by Big Gas)

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

most of easton isn't middle class; we are well below, on average. most of the west ward is the 'working poor', lots of Section 8, lots of Welfare collectors, CHiP & WIC recipients, and those getting food stamps.
the so-called 'middle class' is already gone lady.

Anonymous said...

I see a lot of improvements n the water syustem since it weas transferred to the Water Authorityy but I thought our rates were supposed to go down and the burbs were supposed to go up. I anm going to check on tha on Tuesday at City Hall.

noel jones said...

Are raised water rates just another tax? Here is a comment by Anonymous from a post back in March my article "Easton in the Black":

"There's an article published in the Morning Call

http://forksaction.com/Files/MCall_Water_Treatment_040305.pdf

and it explains the differences in water rate and sewer rate charges. Since the water operations were transferred to ESWA there only exists differences in the sewer rates.

According to the article Easton charges 6.90 per 750 gallons for sewer treatment while Forks charges 3.60 and Palmer charges 3.85.

According to Humphrey the
business administrator, said the city, with 27 percent of its properties tax exempt, treats sewer and water revenues
as it would other revenue sources like parking meters or building permit fees. Apparently suburban communities only use sewer funds to meet sewer expenses.

It was one of those gimmicks that was used to balance a budget and was used again and again to balance and finally got way out of hand."

March 2, 2010 8:41 PM