The fees on my water bill are already over $100 per month. Maybe if we weren’t paying to build multimillion dollar pylons for I-35’s non existent parkland (that we also can’t afford to build or maintain) we wouldn’t have to come up with more new fees.

  • movies@lemmy.world
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    4 months ago

    100% agree OP. The utility bills here are insane. And more highways so we can continue to have insane traffic but in new, different places instead of, ya know, the lightrail that was approved by voters and shut down by the legislature. It’s all a clusterfuck.

  • protist@mander.xyz
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    3 months ago

    The fees on my water bill are already over $100 per month.

    The fees on my bill are half this, and I’m in a decent sized single family home on a decent sized lot. Are you sure you’re not counting your actual utility usage in there? These fees are paying for street sweepers, code enforcement, storm water drainage, and more, which are all vital services.

      • protist@mander.xyz
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        2 months ago

        Where do you think you’re going to get garbage pickup and sewers for free?! And in what world do you live where you don’t recognize that water and wastewater are both water service?! Lmao these are not superfluous fees, these are the costs of real services you and most people in the entire state of Texas use.

        I feel grateful to have all my services on one bill, most other places in Texas you pay each of these to a separate entity. My mother in a far-flung suburb of Houston has separate bills for electricity, water, garbage, and city services she has to keep track of. And yes, you will be paying for storm water drainage, solid waste collection, and sewers in every place in the state that has these things.

        • reddig33@lemmy.worldOP
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          2 months ago

          I didn’t say I minded paying for these things. I said I thought adding more fees to the water bill was ridiculous because we are already paying over $100 per month in fees. **I was told this wasn’t true, so I posted the picture to show that it is true. **

          Adding more fees to utility bills is not the answer. We already pay property and sales taxes that should be used for infrastructure like this. We’ve already voted for bond money for parks. Adding to the $1200 per household per year we are paying is not the answer.

          Also the “clean community” fee is a joke. Have you seen all the litter and graffiti around Austin?

          • protist@mander.xyz
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            2 months ago

            I challenge you to find anywhere in the state of Texas with sewers (rather than septic tanks) that doesn’t charge you for wastewater on your water bill. I also challenge you to find anywhere with garbage collection service where that isn’t a separate charge.

            I get you’re someone whose going to criticize our city government no matter what, but what in the ever-loving fuck are you talking about that these are fees tacked on to your water bill rather than charges for services that are standard across municipalities. This is your utility bill, not your drinking water delivery bill