Hi Rich,
You were wondering about the SSSC, storm sewer system charge. It is billed separately because it is a charge directly related to storm sewers. Everything related to sewers in St. Paul is run thru what they call the "Sewer Utility Fund", while property taxes only fund the "General Fund". The "Sewer Utility Fund" is managed separately and by a different group of people. And of course, as noted earlier, the other reason is because its not called a tax. We're all aware of the benefits of that.
The other source of funding for the Sewer Utility Fund would be the Sanitary Sewer Charge that you do receive with your water billing. This charge is directly related to the amount of water you use that can be determined to ending up in the sanitary sewer. That's the primary reason they use your use rate as determined in the winter for billing thru the summer. Watering your lawn is not supposed to affect how much you pay for sanitary sewer fees. Your water bill continues to go up however.
There was a question as to why the little post cards went away and the big envelope showed up. Years ago it was thought the little post card would save printing costs. However it didn't have anything in it to encourage immediate payment. What they found with the envelope and an addressed return envelope was that immediate collections doubled ( from 10% to 20%) and that money was earning interest earlier as well as reducing paperwork on the staff dealing with the property tax side of life. The money now goes directly into a band, where bank staff deal with receipts and deposits.
And again as noted earlier I'm sending a copy of what the City publishes concerning storm water management programs to the person who was asking for information earlier. If anyone else wants it, contact me directly and I will email it to you (1.6 mb). I got it by asking the City for it.
Pat Byrne St. Clair and Lexington Parkway Neighborhood
"Not Everyone Can Live Upstream"
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