Konish: Our bundled GRU bills are juiced, not “convenient”
Letter to the editor
GRU bundles residential trash and stormwater “fees” into the metered electricity charge within the city limits only. Both of these non-GRU-utility “fees” are attached to the electric METER. These fees often fall upon tenants, NOT property owners.
Master metering evades the fees. Unmetered or inactive accounts are charged nothing. Uncollectible accounts are never recovered.
The City pays GRU $1.3 million annually for this billing regime. These nonutility “fees” must be paid on time, in full, monthly by the electric account holder or else GRU electric service will be terminated, first, since the customer is considered delinquent across the board. The customer cannot opt out of these fees. Every tax parcel pays an assessment for the rural collection center, which is available to all residents free of charge. The tax collector would collect more “fees” more accurately for a much lower cost by placing these “fees” on the property tax bill. The COUNTY does this.
Completely separate from the City stormwater and trash fees, GRU also collects massive, pyramided utility and local sales taxes for the City and County and is paid nothing for this. Since the despised surcharges must be equal to the City Utility Tax, GRU overcharges for SURCHARGES AND local tax on all bills all the time by exceeding the 10% statutory limit. Keith Perry found this to be a Bernie Madoff scheme when I explained it to him. Bielarski claims this outrage is “convenient” for the GRU customer.
Jim Konish, Gainesville
The opinions expressed by letter or opinion writers are their own and do not necessarily represent the views of AlachuaChronicle.com. Assertions of facts in letters are similarly the responsibility of the author. Letters may be submitted to info@alachuachronicle.com and are published at the discretion of the editor.
Still waiting for this guy to say something intelligible and interesting.
It’s clear, as in crystal, the City has been milking residents for years.
Maybe you just enjoy having your teets sucked.
Are our property taxes funding the bum magnet Grace Marketplace that brings vagrants and released jail & prison felons here to Alachua county to get our free benefits then add to crime and then they squat in the woods and panhandle street corners when they get kicked out of Grace.—there’s always articles here that a homeless person did this crime, or pulled a knife.—there should be zero tolerance for panhandling in the medians and the litter and trash they leave behind.
Konish makes some valid points worth considering.
I typically agree with you but you’re starting to go off the rails. I sense an ulterior motive.
The problem = electric rates. They’re too high.
Caused by too much debt.
We all have to pay storm water and trash fees regardless. Is it better if they’re attached to our property tax bill? Or utility bill? Most people directly pay their own utility bill each month. Most people pay their property tax bill indirectly via mortgage payments to the bank. You are angling for an even more automated payment structure. You know once these fees are added to mortgage payments (indirectly via property taxes) that most people will have even less control over the matter…see insurance fiasco.
Property taxes need to dwindle away, not added to!
My property taxes go up year after year, never down. I’m tired of being the piggy bank for the ACSB, and mosquito control.
I live in Walton County. We are connected to Mossyhead Waterworks and have a functioning well, which is used for watering/washing vehicles. Our water bill averages $20/mo. We have Chelco electric service. We are on budget billing, $190/mo. Property tax on our 2000 sq ft home on 5.5 acres is $319/year. We have no storm water bill. Trash collection isn’t billed, it comes out of property tax.
The issue being GRU claims the fees for things like garbage and such are so high BECAUSE they have to go through a third party vendor. So we pay more fees so they can bundle the bills
I agree with the replies to my comment above. What I’m saying is that it doesn’t matter if we pay the costs via utility bill or via property tax bill. We still must pay the overpriced amount for now.
The problem is not how the billing is handled…the problem is the high prices (not costs) that can be attributed to third parties and good ole government corruption. The city and county government are the issues here, not the utility. The utility does not award nor manage trash services.
Bill us separately, bill our property tax, bill our utility bill…this does not matter. We still gotta pay the services that our local governments (city or county) are contracting. That’s the issue in my opinion. If you’re angry (and rightfully so) let your city or county rep know instead of complaining to the people who bill you.
Again, the utility does not award nor manage trash services. They were just somehow stuck with billing everyone for it.
Yeah…I don’t have my bill in front of me, but my wastewater fee is always more than my water fee… then there’s that storm water fee and all kinds of taxes for this and that, etc.that seem usurious. The garbage fee is so expensive
For that small can with the fake bottom.
I have property in St. John’s county and my electric bill is lower and so are my taxes. St. John’s county ain’t so woke maybe.
This is why I support the new stare efforts to reduce property taxes.