{"id":264562,"date":"2026-06-12T15:55:17","date_gmt":"2026-06-12T15:55:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/264562\/"},"modified":"2026-06-12T15:55:17","modified_gmt":"2026-06-12T15:55:17","slug":"hiking-water-rates-is-another-way-mamdani-tosses-affordability-overboard","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/264562\/","title":{"rendered":"Hiking water rates is another way Mamdani tosses \u2018affordability\u2019 overboard"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cAffordability\u201d is going forgotten again as Mayor Zohran Mamdani<\/a> grabs some extra cash for his agenda by racking water rates.<\/p>\n

Over the objections of elected officials, homeowner groups and rate-payers, the city Water Board on Tuesday approved a 6% water-rate hike as of July 1.\u00a0<\/p>\n

GOP gubernatorial candidate Bruce Blakeman rightly slammed it as \u201ca multimillion-dollar backroom deal to bail out Mamdani\u2019s city budget on the backs of hardworking taxpayers.\u201d<\/p>\n

The fix was in from the start: Mamdani\u2019s executive budget spending plan had already baked in the rate hike months ago.<\/p>\n

The average homeowner can expect to shell out an extra $100 a year, while water and sewer bills for apartment buildings will jump $60 per unit.<\/p>\n

Which points to one reason the mayor doesn\u2019t care: Tenants don\u2019t directly feel any pain from the hike, so they won\u2019t blame Mamdani \u2014 and the landlords already know he hates them.<\/p>\n

Since the days of Ed Koch, City Hall has collected a \u201crental payment\u201d from the Water Board<\/a> to \u201clease\u201d the Big Apple\u2019s water and sewer system; that revenue flows into the city\u2019s General Fund.<\/p>\n

The charge has soared in recent years, from $102 million in 2003 to $313 million in the current fiscal year.<\/p>\n

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Since 2004, it\u2019s been based not on anything to do with the city\u2019s costs, but on an obscure formula based on various bond-payment rates.<\/p>\n

Way back in 2008, city Comptroller William Thompson blasted the change as sneakily exploiting New Yorkers for City Hall\u2019s fiscal benefit; he wanted the lease revenue to go to lowering water rates for customers; naturally, City Hall nixed his recommendation.<\/p>\n

And Mamdani, who campaigned on various pledges to make living in the Big Apple less costly, is continuing the rip-off of water customers to help bloat his city budget.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s hardly the only area where \u201caffordability\u201d takes a back seat to his urge to splurge: Last week, Mamdani\u2019s Department of Housing Preservation and Development slammed Bronx tenants at Tracey Towers with a proposed 28% rent hike<\/a>: No freeze for you!<\/p>\n

Whenever he thinks he can get away with it, Mayor \u201cWarmth of Collectivism\u201d gives struggling New Yorkers the cold shoulder.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cAffordability\u201d is going forgotten again as Mayor Zohran Mamdani grabs some extra cash for his agenda by racking…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":264563,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[1586,18800,1626,14927,304,9,24,55,54,56,299,564,2780,6524,82],"class_list":["post-264562","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york-city","tag-affordability","tag-bonds","tag-bruce-blakeman","tag-city-budget","tag-editorial","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-new-york-city-headlines","tag-new-york-city-news","tag-ny","tag-opinion","tag-rent","tag-taxes","tag-water","tag-zohran-mamdani"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/264562","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=264562"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/264562\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/264563"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=264562"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=264562"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=264562"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}