Image: Francesco Marino / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Just because I like complaining about the water/sewer rates in Grand Rapids I’ll post the mail box findings from today.

Water is now at $31.92 + $1.82 per HCF

Sewer is now at $40.99 + $3.33 per HCF

The over all increase from last quarter is not drastic; Base rates of $70.65, water $1.752, sewer $3.238, but it is still and increase.

Our usage stayed the same from last quarter, but due to the rate increases I owe the city more money. I would have to dig a little to confirm this, but every quarter the rates have gone up since we moved in in December of 2004.

I know that I’m just complaining to complain, but this is starting to get a bit out of hand.

I have worked elections for the city for the past few years and am just amazed at the low turnout. In the precinct that I was working there were three things on the ballot. 1) A school board race 2) The income tax hike 3) A vote to remove the city charter requirement that a work day must be 8 hours. The school board race was hit or miss, since I am sure not everyone knew, myself included, every name on the ballot. The income tax hike failed 91 No to 72 Yes. The charter rule removal passed with a wide margin. To quantify the turn out, we processed 163 ballots for 1066 registered voters, or about 15%.

I really thought that city voters would come out in droves because of the income tax hike. Unlike property taxes, the city income tax effects every resident that has any form of income. However the city leaders are not stupid, and they know that the low turnout in May coupled with the ultimatum they gave would work in their favor.

“City officials are clear about one thing — without the additional revenue, as many as 35 police officers and firefighters would be among a new round of cuts. Some services, like parks and recreation, would go away all together.” WOOD TV

The city is estimating they will raise $7.5 million with the tax increase, however they are only dedicating $2.5 million to the police and fire departments. I guess one way to bully a yes vote is to threaten to fire 35 public safety persons.

Yes I know they were asking for this money to help fund the parks department. Yes I know the hike is officially only for 5 years. This does remind me of a time when the school district where I grew up asked for and received a property tax millage to build and renovate. The millage was written to automatically expire after a set number of years. However, when that deadline grew near the district asked to extend the millage. They promoted this as “Your taxes will not go up at all from their current level.” I don’t remember if that millage extension passed, or if it was eventually removed. I can’t help but think that in four years the City of Grand Rapids is going to ask residents to approve making the 1.5% tax rate permanent.

I have no problem letting everyone know that I voted no. I don’t like higher taxes. I don’t like city leaders that think they can bully people for more money. I don’t like that the city leaders think five years of higher taxes while they get their act together with the budget is okay.

The “Readiness to Serve Charge” has gone up another 8.2% from $65.29 to $70.65.

Water Rate last year: $1.591 per HCF. This quarter the rate is $1.752 per HCF for an increase of 10.1%.

Sewer Rate last year: $2.898 per HCF of water use. This quarter the rate is $3.238 per HCF of water use for an increase of 11.7%.

I’m just bitching to bitch. Our usage has gone down, but our overall cost has gone up. One year later we are using 7 HCF less of water, down to 11 HCF from 18, but paying about 10% more.

Now I’ve been told that some communities on the GR water/sewer system are getting much higher bills then we are in the city. I guess this might be one good thing of living out of town and just needed to pay for the electricity to pump water.

The majority of the broken links in my blog are for external sources. There is a rash of old news articles, hockey articles, and pictures. Now the pictures are not things that I have stolen or anything. They are pictures that I was provided an embed code for, but the image is just gone now.

I guess what bothers me the most is the lack of archives for news articles. Data storage is cheap why do news organizations delete content? Also, why can’t the Griffins keep all of their old news articles?

Work has been going well. I am out at the park on the weekends.

Oh and Drake got his very own Digital Camera from Grandma Klein! He has been very excited to take a bunch of pictures.

The “Readiness to Serve Charge” has gone up 13.67% from $57.44 to $65.29. Even before any water is used we have to pay $65.29 just because we are hooked up to the system. By comparison the electric companies “Just to be a customer charge” is $18.00 per quarter. The gas company? $25.50 per quarter.

Not only are we now paying more just to have the opportunity to use water, the rate for the water has gone up.

Water Rate last quarter: $1.57 per HCF. This quarter the rate is $1.591 per HCF for an increase of 1.34%.

Sewer Rate last quarter: $2.58 per HCF of water use. This quarter the rate is $2.898 per HCF of water use for an increase of 12.33%.

I’m just flabbergasted.

Averaged out with the same HCF usage of 18 our bill increased by 10.56%.

Brooke and Rob came over on Saturday, that was fun. We played cards, some BS and peanuts.

Drake has been crazy. He has been using the potty more often.

Yeah, this was pointless I think. I’m just bored at work.

The good news is that our taxable value rate went down.

The bad news is that our taxable value rate went down.

In Michigan the taxable value of your home is not necessarily the actual value of your home, or if you just purchased your home it is most likely not going to be what you paid for the home. There are two factors involved with calculating your taxable value. The first is the State Equalized Value of your home. By law this number must be approximately 50% of the true cash value of your home. The taxable value of your home may be less if the SEV went up by more then the rate of inflation.

This can also mean that the taxable value of your home may increase even if the cash value of your home decreases. This would be able to happen if your home has a large gap in the cash value and its taxable value. If the cash value of your home was to decrease but still be higher then the taxable value with an inflation increase then your taxes would go up even when the cash value of your home went down.

Now, once a house changes hands the taxable value is automatically raised to the cash value of the home. This is the case with our house. We have owned it for a little over 4 years so the SEV and Taxable value have been almost always in sync. For 2009 our SEV and Taxable Value are the same because the actual cash value of our home decreased.

This means that we’ll pay less in property taxes, but also means that our house has lost value. At this point the principal balance of our mortgage is just about equal with what the state says the cash value of our home is.