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
Technorati Tags: stormwater, virginia, taxes
Phase II stormwater taxes Virginia