Stormwater tax proposal questioned

A city proposal asking property owners to quadruple their payments to clean up stormwater pollution would avoid the usual two-thirds vote requirement by conducting the election entirely by mail. Daily News.

The proposal from the city Board of Public Works would ask the city's 788,620 property owners in a mail ballot to increase the amount they tax themselves from $23.04 a year per parcel to $47.16 a year next year and to $99 a month by 2014.

And, despite some complaints from city officials that it is being rushed, two City Council committees are scheduled to take up the plan today. A special joint meeting of the council's Budget and Finance and Energy and Environment committees are to consider taking the next step in the process -- allocating $450,000 for the ballots and setting a June 23 hearing on whether to have the election.