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Virginia Approves $1.2 million stormwater budget, who will pay?

Ξ September 10th, 2007 | → 0 Comments | ∇ Taxes, Phase II, Virginia |

The News Virginian announced today that a $1.2 million annual budget has been agreed upon for a new stormwater program.

Under a $1.2
million program, the city keeps all the maintenance plans, improvement
projects and employees it had mapped out from the start. The city would
slash about $200,000 from the original budget by using general tax
money instead of stormwater fees to pay for one-time startup costs such
as new vehicles and office equipment.

The City Council decided to pay $1.2 million instead of $900,000 which would have only provided maintenance for half of the year.

However, they are still somewhat undecided on how the new tax burden will be distributed. One Council Member is favoring placing more of a burden on residents, as the per resident increase would be less per capita than businesses.

I’m very surprised that virtually none of these new programs seem to plan on using enforcement to generate income. While Phase II requirements are considered an unfunded mandate by the federal government, options exist. Phase II regulations not only allow MS4s to regulate citizens and businesses, they require it.

Developing a fine for non-compliance can serve two-fold. It can generate more revenue with little effort for the municipality while at the same time increasing compliance.

An added benefit is that fines are usually pretty straightforward. You pay the fine or you go to jail. Systems of fee credits and exemptions often become a giant political morass and unnecessarily complicated.

-Stormwater Guru

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Aspen, Co to Tax Homeowners, Land Development for Phase II funding

Ξ August 29th, 2007 | → 0 Comments | ∇ Colorado, Taxes, Pollution News, Phase II, MS4 |

A proposed property tax is being put on the ballot in Aspen, Colorado in order to pay for the cities stormwater management plan.

The dedicated property tax would be used to fund the annual costs of the program, plus all of the capital investments. City officials estimate that the property tax would generate about $12 million over the next 15 years. The tax would be equal to a single-family homeowner paying an estimated $13.24 a month; an owner of affordable housing paying $0.62 a month and a large commercial property owner paying $606.70 a month, according to a memo written by Aragon………

A development fee also is proposed, which would be assessed against all properties at the time of building the system. The fee would be $2.88 per square foot of the proposed impervious area. Proceeds from that fee would be used to pay for improvements to the storm sewer collection system.

This route is the way that many municipalities are beginning to go in order to fund their Phase II stormwater requirements. I am somewhat surprised that Aspen decided to levy the development tax on top of the property tax. Does this mean that Aspen is going to provide the controls and maintain compliance for new developments? Somehow I doubt it.

A 2,500 square foot impervious footprint on a new home would now cost $8,000 more. I wonder if this is going to lead to a lot of ‘green’ roofs. If I was a developer, it seems it would almost be cost effective to put in rooftop gardens etc.

I wonder why the city didn’t choose to place the tax instead on sales tax. Aspen usually draws a significant number of tourists each year, so in effect the city is taxing relatively few for the stormwater pollution of many.

-Stormwater Guru