{"id":375132,"date":"2025-11-13T04:25:26","date_gmt":"2025-11-13T04:25:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/375132\/"},"modified":"2025-11-13T04:25:26","modified_gmt":"2025-11-13T04:25:26","slug":"exclusive-nyc-pols-push-to-protect-water-bill-deadbeats","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/375132\/","title":{"rendered":"Exclusive | NYC pols push to protect water bill deadbeats –"},"content":{"rendered":"

The City Council<\/a> is pushing legislation that would make it harder for authorities to collect from deadbeats who owe tens of thousands of dollars on their water bills, Big Apple regulators say.<\/p>\n

The bill being considered by the council could also potentially trigger water bill hikes on Big Apple owners who pay on time in order to make up the lost revenue, according to the city Department of Environmental Protection, which runs the system.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur water system<\/a> depends on people paying their water bills. When some people don\u2019t pay, everyone else must make up the difference \u2014 or DEP must invest less in the system,\u201d said DEP Commissioner Rohit Aggarwala.<\/p>\n

The City Council has proposed legislation that would make it more difficult for authorities to collect money from city residents who owe money on their water bills. Christopher Sadowski<\/p>\n

The Council is holding a hearing on the series of bills Thursday, including one proposed by Speaker Adrienne Adams, to scrap lien\u00a0sales on the debt of outstanding\u00a0tax\u00a0or water bills.<\/p>\n

A lien is a legal claim against property for unpaid property taxes, water bills or other charges.<\/p>\n

The sale transfers the unpaid liens to a buyer, or lienholder, who can begin foreclosure proceedings on the property in court if the taxes and\/or charges are not paid.<\/p>\n

DEP said even the threat of lien sales is a valuable stick that forces water bill delinquents to pay up.<\/p>\n

\u201cWithout enforcement, people stop paying \u2014 and not only because they can\u2019t afford to, but because they realize there\u2019s no consequence if they don\u2019t,\u201d Aggarwala said.<\/p>\n

He even cited a case of a delinquent property owner who refused to pay the water bill while brazenly installing a swimming pool at the residence.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe had one case where a household stopped paying their water bills for several years while at the same time putting in a swimming pool. They only paid when we threatened a water shut off,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

If the bill passes, it could lead to water bill hikes for current New York City residents who make their payments on time. James Messerschmidt<\/p>\n

DEP has the ability to shut off the water, but it doesn\u2019t do so in a building where the landlord has other tenants.<\/p>\n

Leading up to this year\u2019s June lien sale, city officials sent out 500,000 mailings, made 77,000 phone calls, and did 6,500 doorknocks.<\/p>\n

In the end, only 0.1% of all DEP customers ultimately had a lien sold \u2014 just one in a thousand, Aggarwala said.<\/p>\n

But the threat of losing property helped generate $374 million in overdue revenue \u2014 $180 million in payments, $172 million in payment agreements, and $22 million from the lien sale itself, according to the DEP commissioner<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s the point: the threat of the lien sale works. It motivates payment, keeps rates fair, and maintains the integrity of the water system,\u201d Aggarwala said.<\/p>\n

DEP Commissioner Rohit Aggarwala said, \u201cOur water system depends on people paying their water bills. When some people don\u2019t pay, everyone else must make up the difference \u2014 or DEP must invest less in the system.\u201d Paul Martinka<\/p>\n

The DEP provided examples of past delinquent property owners who paid up after learned they were on the lien sale or on a water shut-off list.<\/p>\n

The city Office of Management and Budget estimates that the City Council bills under consideration could reduce DEP\u2019s annual revenues by $105 to $150 million.<\/p>\n

To make up for that loss, DEP said it has two options: postponing capital improvements or raising the rates for water bills for all customers.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo make up for the revenue this set of legislation may put at jeopardy could require a mid-year rate increase or an additional increase over and above the 7% forecast for FY 2027,\u201d the commissioner said.<\/p>\n

The city Water Board, which sets rates, is meeting next week, to discuss how to proceed if the Council passes the bills, as is expected.<\/p>\n

The Council defended the legislation to protect owners from losing their homes..<\/p>\n

\u201cFor decades, the tax lien sale has been a singularly focused enforcement tool that has disproportionately led Black, Latino, and Asian New Yorkers to lose their hard-earned homes and assets,\u201d said Council spokesperson Rendy Desamours.<\/p>\n

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\u201cThis has a major cost on the economic health and safety of our city and its neighborhoods that too many of the bureaucrats in mayoral administrations have callously disregarded. These proposed reforms simply require the entity dealing with liens to be accountable to the well-being of New Yorkers instead of profits.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Council rep added, \u201cWe can collect taxes and water payments without destroying wealth in Black and brown communities experiencing historic racial wealth gaps. It\u2019s past time for the City to move away from this short-sighted approach to implement a real pathway that supports homeowners in resolving debts and ensures foreclosed properties serve a housing or community purpose rather than becoming blights in neighborhoods.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The City Council is pushing legislation that would make it harder for authorities to collect from deadbeats who…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":375133,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5122],"tags":[5229,5310,20528,5248,405,403,5226,5225,5228,5227,67,586,132,5230,68,1154,2969,527],"class_list":{"0":"post-375132","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-city-council","10":"tag-department-of-environmental-protection","11":"tag-metro","12":"tag-new-york","13":"tag-new-york-city","14":"tag-newyork","15":"tag-newyorkcity","16":"tag-ny","17":"tag-nyc","18":"tag-united-states","19":"tag-united-states-of-america","20":"tag-unitedstates","21":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","22":"tag-us","23":"tag-us-news","24":"tag-usa","25":"tag-water"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115540493853061018","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/375132","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=375132"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/375132\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/375133"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=375132"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=375132"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=375132"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}