City of Wayne - Sticks it to us again!

First, the city is going to charge us for street lights, NOW, they are adding huge fixed fees to our water and sewer bills. A couple of years ago, they started adding a $5 per month or $10 per billing cycle to the water bill. Last year they changed it and are now adding $10 per month or $20 per billing cycle to it. The city just announced that they are also going to add a $15 per month or $30 per billing cycle to our sewer portion of the bill. This will total $50 every bill before you even use one drop of water. Cities all over have found a way to "tax" us - no wait, use a "special assessment" to beef up the coffers. This way the councils don't have to go before the voters, they can just pass it with no problem.

Cities and corporations tell us to conserve and save, that is just a bunch of political correctness bull shiit. Every time we cut back on water usage the city has to increase the "fixed" fees to make up for that lack of revenues. Same go for DTE, the more you cut back on heating and electrical use, the higher the rates to make up the difference.

It never ends.

What do other cities charge in terms of fixed fees for water and sewer? City of Wayne charges a total of $50 every 2 months.

I forgot to add for clarity - the basic water/sewer rate is $3.75/1000 gallons for water and $5.72/1000 gallons for sewer based on water usage. The fixed fee of $50 comes on top of any usage charges. Every city pays a different amount for usage based on a whole lot of factors - age of lines, distance from plants, elevation, usage, the more one city cuts back - the more the other cities pay...

Here in beautiful Lighthouse Point, FL, I pay the following monthly bills:

Broward County Sewer Bill:
$4.14--Billing Fee
$23.90--Base Sewer Charge
$49.80--Sewer Usage Fee
$36.10--Garbage and Trash Pickup

Pompano Beach Water Department:
$262.05 last month which is supposedly broken down into a base fee, bonded indebtedness recovery fee, and a variable amount based on usage. I cannot easily find the breakdown.

In Warren:

~ $2.70 per billing cycle service charge for a standard residential meter
~ $4.60 per 100ft^3 for water and sewer [[around 780 gallons), with a minimum of ~ $9

Wow you guys are getting ripped off.

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Originally Posted by MichiganMan

First, the city is going to charge us for...

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City of WAYNE... or City of DETROIT? what are we talking about here?

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Originally Posted by MichiganMan

This way the councils don't have to go before the voters,

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Remember that at the next local election and dump the council.

Grosse Pointe Woods - bimonthly billing:

capital improvement charge: $21.00
meter charge: $43.70
billing expense: $2.00

water rate: $2.04/100 cu ft
sewage rate: $1.60/100 cu ft

Unfortunately we have an issue of too much infastructure and not enough people utilizing it. The City of Wayne buys its water from Detroit, but it has other fixed costs in delivering the water to its residents and businesses. Unfortunatly thoughout the region we have a lot of empty buildings that once housed residents or businesses. Empty businesses and homes pay $0 for water, yet the sewers and watermains still are there and need maintenance in order for them to deliver less water to fewer residents and businesses.

The same thing is true with roads, electricity, cable, transit, and all other infastructure. his is why we need to think as a region to coordinate things more now than ever, cross both jurisdictions and infastructure categories in order to reshape this region into one with pipes, roads, wiring, and transit that services everyone.

The following link is what SEMCOG is doing to coordinate things. It would help if you would contact your local community and tell them that you support these efforts. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tf6aQ...pgsBP8ag_HPNHQ

... and people wonder why Impatients [[high water usage) are an endangered flower species.

I've stopped all watering around my house several years ago... only thing that gets any water is my 4 pots of flowers, and occasionally the Hosta's [[some will die off otherwise). But not one ounce of water for the grass or trees on my property here in SCS. My next door neighbor took it a step further... his entire front yard is landscaped with only rocks... but he does have a lawn, and a Sycamore tree on the city property below the sidewalk.

love the "billing fee"... i run a business and send out invoices, if I could only add 2-4 dollars as a fee to send them a bill......

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Originally Posted by Goose

love the "billing fee"... i run a business and send out invoices, if I could only add 2-4 dollars as a fee to send them a bill......

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Only the government can commit legal crime.

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Originally Posted by Goose

love the "billing fee"... i run a business and send out invoices, if I could only add 2-4 dollars as a fee to send them a bill......

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Why don't you? I pay assorted fees to all sorts of businesses.

Taxpayers probably demanded an accounting of their "high" water bills and forced the local units to break out the fee as a separate cost.

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Originally Posted by Goose

love the "billing fee"... i run a business and send out invoices, if I could only add 2-4 dollars as a fee to send them a bill......

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My cell phone and insurance bills all add a $2 fee to get paper bill each billing cycle. Plus, there is the dreaded 'handling' fee for mailing out some products.

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Originally Posted by Goose

love the "billing fee"... i run a business and send out invoices, if I could only add 2-4 dollars as a fee to send them a bill......

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I don't know of any reason you can't if your customers are willing to pay it.

You might even be able to add a 'facilities charge' to pay for whatever.

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Originally Posted by Meddle

I don't know of any reason you can't if your customers are willing to pay it.

You might even be able to add a 'facilities charge' to pay for whatever.

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just paid the waterbill again today

love the liberal logic and lack of any business knowledge here, as the previous posters obviously have no idea the difference between a business and a monopolistic public utility

sure I can add $5 to my invoices as a billing fee, I can add anything I want, doesn't mean the customers/clients are going to pay it or be clients any longer

if I charge $5 to my customers to send them a bill, they may pay it, they may ask me to drop the charge, or they may find another person to do business with that doesn't charge a $5 fee

how do I tell the water department I don't want to pay their fee? what is my option if I disagree with this? there isn't any other option, you either get water from them, or you don't get water....

this is the disconnect that the left has with government [[which all policies and taxes are collected by force where you have no choice) and private business [[where you have a choice to do commerce with or not, and can seek alternatives)

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Originally Posted by Goose

just paid the waterbill again today

love the liberal logic and lack of any business knowledge here, as the previous posters obviously have no idea the difference between a business and a monopolistic public utility

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That is an absolutely moronic statement. Do you think it would be different if it was a monopolistic private enterprise? My DTE bill has a billing fee, my phone bill has a billing fee, my internet has a billing fee. I bet your credit card has a billing fee, although they may call it a different name.

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Originally Posted by Goose

just paid the waterbill again today

love the liberal logic and lack of any business knowledge here, as the previous posters obviously have no idea the difference between a business and a monopolistic public utility

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Thanks for the good laugh Goose.... so it took you 21 months of "thought" to come up with that snarky response to a thread most of us had long ago forgotten?? :p

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Originally Posted by Goose

this is the disconnect that the left has with government [[which all policies and taxes are collected by force where you have no choice) and private business [[where you have a choice to do commerce with or not, and can seek alternatives)

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Yes, but government is divinely inspired while profit making companies are eeeeeeevulllllllll.

Great job updating a thread 2-yrs old......:confused:

Hamtramck. $98 per quarter to have a water meter, whether you use any water or not.

In Detroit, residential garbage pickup still tacks on $250/yr to your tax bill.

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Originally Posted by DetroitPlanner

Unfortunately we have an issue of too much infastructure and not enough people utilizing it. The City of Wayne buys its water from Detroit, but it has other fixed costs in delivering the water to its residents and businesses. Unfortunatly thoughout the region we have a lot of empty buildings that once housed residents or businesses. Empty businesses and homes pay $0 for water, yet the sewers and watermains still are there and need maintenance in order for them to deliver less water to fewer residents and businesses.

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Perhaps Wayne might benefit from a program to move residents from less-populated neighborhoods and move them to more populated neighborhoods. Then whole sections of Wayne could revert to grassland, without streets, pipes, sewers or anything at all. I don't know why nobody's ever thought of this before. Wayne could dramatically lower the costs paid by utilities and the bills to maintain infrastructure. And then, when somebody wanted to build something on all that vacant land, like a smoke factory or a prison, it could be done! What say you, Wayne residents?!

Utilities have high fixed costs. This has been an issue in places like the UP where there are many summer homes. The utilities have had to push to have higher flat monthly charges to pay for the infrastructure [[and make people pay, even when they are not there during the winter). It's true that a lot of vacant homes would drive up the monthly fixed cost for those still in the system. Bad debts can also drive up the fixed costs.

But but but......i thought all of those high water bills were the fault of the big bad DETROIT water and sewage department though.....?

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Originally Posted by Gistok

Thanks for the good laugh Goose.... so it took you 21 months of "thought" to come up with that snarky response to a thread most of us had long ago forgotten?? :p

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LOL. He just dropped a dumb statement about not being able to bill customers a fee and then when brought with reality about DTE and ATT and all the other private companies tacking on fees, he decides to take a crap on himself.

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Originally Posted by rb336

That is an absolutely moronic statement. Do you think it would be different if it was a monopolistic private enterprise? My DTE bill has a billing fee, my phone bill has a billing fee, my internet has a billing fee. I bet your credit card has a billing fee, although they may call it a different name.

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so sorry you have no choice in life in internet service... and credit cards..... that you willingly bend over and pay everything they ask..... and there are alternative energy suppliers, although limited, to DTE.... whats a monopolistic private company that you pretty much absolutely need? moron??? yeah, thats another wonderful liberal trait when they are wrong... name calling....