I attended the hearing on electricity rates held in Norwich to support a friend who is a customer of CL&P. This caused me to look at my own bill from the Norwich Department of Public Utilities. I learned that I pay four individual charges to be one of their customers.
In my case, I am paying them annually $572.76 to be their customer. Then they, in turn, magnanimously turn a portion of that over to the City of Norwich. At least for the taxes I pay to the City, State and federal governments I get a deduction. For what I pay to the NPU, I don’t even get a membership card or a discount. I am lucky enough though to be able to be charged for two trackers. One is a Gas Capital Tracker and the other an Electric Capital Tracker. I pay for water coming into my house as well as for water going out and a mandatory sewer upgrade charge as well. I also contribute to the Energy Efficiency fund above paying for the purchased power adjustment and for what I actually used.
Now I just heard that the City Council will be considering a city wide fire tax that would be a fair thing to spread over the city as a whole but maybe it is time that we as a city looked at all of the individual fees, charges, and taxes and examined how they are being collected and distributed.
Running short of funds is not a new problem but adding to the burdens of the taxpayers without looking at other solutions is not a demonstration of good planning and leadership. Let’s look at the finances of the city and yes, even those funds we depend on other departments and companies to collect for the city. Let’s take this opportunity to look at how city funds are collected and distributed. Maybe its time for a change.