Utility rate increase plan not equitable
To the editor:
This is addressed to all the council members, including the mayor of Cape Coral.
I am writing this to express my outrage at the audacity of all of you for even considering demanding that the original utility customers pay for the expansion which will benefit others in the north Cape who have been exonerated from paying their share of the bill.
Not too many years ago my neighbors and I in the southwest Cape were told we had to hook up to the water and sewer system. We had no choice in the matter. My home was only one year old when they came in and smashed my brand new septic tank and told me to come up with $22,000 plus about $6,000 more dollars to pay a plumbing contractor to hook us up and smash our septic systems.
There was no compassion at the time. No choice, and no say in the matter.
I am a 62-year-old widower living alone in my home on a pension. Why do you people, in your infinite wisdom, assume that I and all the other rate payers can afford to pay for someone else? There was no empathy for us at that time. I also have another assessment in SW 4 where I own a vacant lot, that has become practically worthless in the past couple of years. In other words, I am paying two assessments plus monthly water and sewer charges on my home, where I live year round. My lot assessment is more than the property is worth, but you are not at all concerned about that inequity.
How dare you even suggest that we pay for the people in the north Cape? You expect us to pay double rates, that, by the way are not tax deductible, so that others can hook up years down the road for a paltry $6,000 after the project is completed and paid for by others.
We paid and are still paying our share and cannot afford to pay for people who are being asked to contribute nothing, for their own facilities. Why the sympathy for only these people and none for us? We were not given a choice whether to hook up or not. Why should they? We are all in this slumping economy together.
I strongly suggest that you drop this silly, unfair, and totally asinine idea of charging the existing rate payers for someone else’s responsibility. You must find a way to make them pay for their own assessments.
The rest of us already paid our share. Maybe you could raise their property taxes to cover their own obligations.
I will be monitoring this absurdity very closely and if you people make the wrong decisions in this case you will most certainly be held accountable.
John Pernetti
Cape Coral