Yesterday Water Watch NYC blogged about the city council meeting regarding the recent water rate hikes (read it here).

The purpose of the post was not just to inform about what transpired at yesterday’s meeting but also to let you know what your best approach is in response.

So what should you, as an upstanding, bill-paying, New Yorker do? Well, Water Watch NYC recognizes that you’re in a difficult situation. Your rates are going up because of other people that aren’t paying their bills. There seems to be no way around it. Granting certain rights to the DEP is either impractical or unfair. The fact is that the DEP does not deserve the rights to lien sales in their current state. On the other hand, the fact is that granting the DEP the right to sell liens seems to be the most efficient way of raising their collections rates and lowering your water bills.

Therefore, Water Watch NYC suggests that you call your local assembly representative and ask them to allow the DEP to sell liens, but you should also be asking your representative to apply as much pressure as they can on the DEP to implement some sort of oversight and to further clean up their act.