A stormwater utility fee or tax is a charge levied on real estate owners based on the amount of impervious surface area on their property. This is because impervious surfaces, such as concrete and asphalt, do not allow rain to infiltrate, which generates more stormwater runoff. The more impervious surface area a property has, the higher the stormwater fee will be.

A city near me has this tax.

 

They charge you to go on the beaches there why wouldn't they tax rain? LOL.

 

My son lived in Maryland and they have a rain tax there too. I don't remember the details. IIRC in Colorado you are not allowed to catch rain water in a cistern. What stupid laws they come up with.

 

Here in my township you are required to capture gutter drains and impervious surface runoff (like a paved driveway) and direct it into underground retention basins. Built to a standard with also an "overflow" area to be included.

This is for all new construction obviously.

 

America is become no better that many other western countries.

 

Some states tax or "charge a fee" for runoff based on the area of your property. Since there are various facilities for handling runoff, like storm drains in cities, or maybe roadside ditches in rural areas, the cost to government is not zero.
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If you think this cost should be absorbed by general government funds then you are advocating Socialism.

 

More taxes is less socialist?

 

The first problem I would have if I lived in New Jersey is that I am sure they already have a tax for drainage/storm sewers. I mean, we have one here so I know that New Jersey has one. So, this is double taxation. The second problem is that it's adding yet more bureaucracy--"local or regional storm water utilities", which is nothing more than a way to pad government payrolls, increase membership in public sector unions, and create more Democrat voters.

 

If New Jersey managed their finances better, they wouldn’t need to dig in the couch cushions for more money.

 

How many here really know how things work in Mob Land.

To understand how finances are managed in that state with the high taxes you need to watch a TV show from the 1960's The Untouchables, they have all this money that comes in and then they have ways of skimming off the top, so there you go now see how simple this all is.

 

Mule Skinner, NJ charges separate bills for water and sewer. Sewer rate is typically calculated at ~ 159% of the water usage x the metered water. That covers the costs for sewer treatment, whether or not the town in question has separate storm water sewers (ie: cities like Newark, Trenton which are densely populated either have combined sewers or separate storm & sanitary sewers, depending on certain blocks.)
In suburbs, they either have separate storm sewers, or if there is enough open space, they don't have storm sewers, they just have run off ditches on the main roads, and some smaller ditches on the residential streets. The typical max. allowed impervious area is about 30-40% depending on the town, which means the rest of the property will take the rain run off and recharge the ground water. In larger parcels (commercial, etc) they make them put in drywells, etc, and there is provisions for small overflow pipe ~2" to flow into the municipal sewer system if there is a major rain storm and the private detention facility gets overwhelmed. So there are mechanisms for stormwater retention and means of billing for any overflow that already in place.
The problem is with densely populated cities, where there is not 1 " of grass in back yards or front yards and every time it rains, they get flooded, and property damage in basements, because there is more developing going on, and the infrastructure below ground is still from the 50's and 60's. Think of a typical 8", 10" or 12" pipe for a combined sewer that was adequate for use in 1950, and now 75 years later, that same pipe is getting sanitary and storm flow for a larger area, and more residents as cities have gone up vertically.
Passing a law to collect more money from residents statewide in suburbs who pay more in property taxes, and who do not have a storm water problem, to give to certain densely populated municipalities who only vote one way, is a more accurate definition of socialism than what you wrote in your last paragraph. As stated above, the cost for sewer treatment (sanitary and storm) is already billed at 159%, this is just another money grab statewide.

PS. Take the above with a grain of salt:
I only lived communism, followed by a shortlived democracy, and then communism come back masked as socialism in Europe. Then I migrated to America in 1999, and thank God everyday I live here, while it's still a free country, if we can manage to keep it.
But what do I know? Just go to work everyday to pay more taxes.

 

It’d be nice if they used the tax dollars as actually earmarked for

 

Tony Soprano enters the chat.

 

Old news. Murphy signed it in 2019.

https://www.njleg.state.nj.us/2018/Bills/S1500/1073_R2.PDF

 

Ok, I'm like, what stupid thing did I say now to make these guys laugh... 😁

Ah...the Governor's name is Murphy, and he did sign this into law. So yes, it is Murphy's Law...

 

At my shop, the roof drains to the parking lot, which drains into a big mortar lined holding pond which in turn slowly drains into the soil, watering a dozen palm trees and some other plants for up to two weeks after a big storm. Ultimately draining into the aquifer to benefit everyone.

At some point people will have to stand up to the State. And who is the State? It's your neighbors. Well maybe not your neighbors, but rich people's neighbors. The sun and rain that falls on MY land belongs to ME. And that's not negociable.

 

Next year they’ll tax people for sunny days, because the asphalt on the roads gets hot, thereby requiring more maintenance and repairs.

 

Maybe people with large parking lots should sue the government for letting it rain on their property. After all water getting under the slab of cement or blacktop can cause the ground to swell and cause cracks in the pavement that will eventually have to be caulked or the parking lot removed and repaved. It sounds like the city owns the rain so they should be responsible for the damage that rain does.

And if it rains so much it overflows the creeks and city drains then it should be the responsibility of the city to repair the damage done to your property. Play it like that and see how the government likes it.

 

We has such years ago at a home we had... Area of driveway and roofs determined tax... Odd though, ALL of the rain on our property, and from sidewalk, drained to our back yard where it puddled then soaked in... Bureaucrats did not care about facts...

 

All a bummer. I'd move to TX, TN, FL or OK.

 

Sounds like another state to be leaving.

 

UserNameTaken mentioned that the sun and rain that falls in his property is his. While I wholeheartedly agree, it made me think where the term windfall came from. The term windfall came from medival Europe (England to be precise) where the lord taxed the serfs for everything they worked for, and if they hunted game or cut a tree in the forest they were whipped in the public square to make an example for everyone to see, because everything belonged to the king, including the roads, I am sure you may have also heard the term: Kings Highway (there are 2 that I know are still in existence today: Kings Highway in Brooklyn, NY and Kings Highway in Horry County, SC).
Since they could not cut any trees because they belonged to the king, if in the rare event, one fell over during a storm, they were "allowed" to have it for wood burning, or whatever else. In that case it was deemed a windfall, which we now refer to as a lucky event, and so did they.