From a lengthy story in the Muncie Star-Press:
Among other fee payers unhappy with the Muncie Sanitary District’s hike in stormwater fees — a sextupling of the price — is Delaware County, which, like everybody else, has to pay.
Unlike property taxes, which exempt local government and most nonprofits, every property owner in MSD’s territory pays for stormwater runoff based on the degree to which their property can’t absorb rainfall.
(The only exception is that public streets and sidewalk are not assessed fees.)
While the increase was 600 percent, the fee for nearly all residences went from $12 annually to $72, not a huge jump in absolute value.
For commercial properties, however, the six-fold leap is significant (as is the amount of rainfall these properties divert into sewers). The county’s total costs for stormwater fees equal $16,000, up from $2,600, most of which is evenly split between the Delaware County Building and the Delaware County Justice Center.
Each used to be one square block of completely impervious surface, thus all rain that fell on the property went into combined sanitary-surface water sewers owned by the Muncie Sanitary District.
MSD is under a court order from both federal and state authorities to divide all combined sewers over 20 years to avoid what happens now: Even modest rainfall overwhelms the system, the sewer treatment plant can’t handle the water, and raw sewage overflows into the White River.
The cost is steep — $186 million — and MSD raised both sewer rates (about 29 percent) and the stormwater fee to start paying for the work.
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http://www.thestarpress.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2012306200002
An earlier post on this issue may be found here:
http://indianapropertytaxreporter.blogspot.com/2012/05/muncie-seeks-ways-to-reduce-stormwater.html
