Pinthouse Pizza
Austin Shouldn't Make Water Too Cheap
RECEIVED Tue., Feb. 24, 2009
Dear Editor,
Water Treatment Plant No. 4 is for the newcomers, the supposed next million people who are hungrily eyed and aggressively courted by that specific sector of Austin business which benefits directly from population growth and controls the levers of city government: the real estate industry [“Dumping the Water Pump,” News, Feb. 20]. The industry’s profits are taken along the development chain, but the costs of growth are off-loaded onto the rest of us.
The true cost of public infrastructure for a new single-family house is estimated at more than $25,000, which is that house’s proportionate share of new and expanded schools, roads, water, wastewater, solid waste, drainage, police, fire protection, emergency medical services, and municipal buildings. Who pays the $25,000? The rest of us.
Austin could charge $3,307 for each water tap, but it barely collects $900, not including the 30% of fees waived and exempted. Austin could charge $1,852 for a wastewater connection, but it settles for about a $600 average. Austin neglects to charge a road-impact fee of $2,000 per house like Fort Worth charges. Between city officials unwilling to charge the full cost of growth and the state of Texas' prohibition on charging developers for their impact on schools and certain infrastructure, the cost must be paid by the rest of us in staggering amounts. More than $520 million in bonds for new schools were approved by voters in 2004 and $567 million in infrastructure bonds passed in 2006 to cover many of these very costs.
WTP 4 can clearly be postponed for many years at great savings – your savings – because that’s who will be stuck with the bill.
Water Treatment Plant No. 4 is for the newcomers, the supposed next million people who are hungrily eyed and aggressively courted by that specific sector of Austin business which benefits directly from population growth and controls the levers of city government: the real estate industry [“Dumping the Water Pump,” News, Feb. 20]. The industry’s profits are taken along the development chain, but the costs of growth are off-loaded onto the rest of us.
The true cost of public infrastructure for a new single-family house is estimated at more than $25,000, which is that house’s proportionate share of new and expanded schools, roads, water, wastewater, solid waste, drainage, police, fire protection, emergency medical services, and municipal buildings. Who pays the $25,000? The rest of us.
Austin could charge $3,307 for each water tap, but it barely collects $900, not including the 30% of fees waived and exempted. Austin could charge $1,852 for a wastewater connection, but it settles for about a $600 average. Austin neglects to charge a road-impact fee of $2,000 per house like Fort Worth charges. Between city officials unwilling to charge the full cost of growth and the state of Texas' prohibition on charging developers for their impact on schools and certain infrastructure, the cost must be paid by the rest of us in staggering amounts. More than $520 million in bonds for new schools were approved by voters in 2004 and $567 million in infrastructure bonds passed in 2006 to cover many of these very costs.
WTP 4 can clearly be postponed for many years at great savings – your savings – because that’s who will be stuck with the bill.
Brian Rodgers
ChangeAustin.org
ChangeAustin.org