Township May Repeal Sewer Bill Separation

Reacting to the perceived unpopularity of the separate sewer bill sent out this year, the Township Committee announced it may consider merging sewer charges back into general property taxes, or use an alternative system to collect sewer costs. 

If the township repeals the sewer fee, which is due March 1, Township Attorney Carl Woodward said residents that paid already will receive a refund or a tax credit – and the obligation of residents who haven't paid would be voided. 

"We'll look at a resolution, an ordinance repealing it," Mayor Mark Smith said during a Township Committee meeting yesterday. 

Asked by the Township Committee to research other sewer billing methods, Financial Officer Jeff Theriault also outlined strategies other municipalities use in Union County as potential alternatives to rolling the fee back into property taxes during last night's meeting.

One option, he said, is a three-tiered sewer system which charges industrial users the most, assuming they use more of the sewer services, commercial establishments less and residents the least. This is the system used by Linden Township, he added.

The most expensive option, he said, is perhaps also the most fair way to bill residents, as it is calculated by sewer service use – the township would install meters in every household to measure the amount of sewerage flow. 

"Some towns actually do a sewer meter to calculate the actual flow of wastewater going to treatment plant but that tends to be a very expensive operation," he said.

Other options include charging a flat fee based on the number of homes divided by the bill, and charging residents based on how many bathrooms and bedrooms their homes contain.

Another strategy is billing households based on how much water they use. But Theriault added this system would cost the township about $5,000 to convert data received from the American Water system.

"It would be costly to get the data, and labor-intensive to take those data sets and upload into our system," he said. 

The Committee requested that Theriault research billing options after Cranford received numerous phone calls from residents complaining that the current system is unfair.

The system bases sewer charges off assessed value of their properties. Many residents said it makes more sense to use a billing system that charges individual households based on how much they use the sewer services.

Since the sewer fee has always been based off property tax assessment in Cranford, Mayor Mark Smith said he believes the sewer fee is currently being picked on by residents because it is more obvious this year than ever before – as the sewer cost was received by residents as a separate bill.

Sewer fees were peeled out of the property tax bill by the current Township Committee and placed into a separate mailing to keep the municipality under state-imposed 4 percent property tax cap – the accounting loophole allowed them to do this without cutting services or a large amount of employees.

Repealing the sewer bill separation will add more to township costs overall. To keep underneath the state imposed 2-percent cap next year, the township may have to cut out even more services or employees, Theriault said.

"We'll play it be ear, take it one day at a time," Theriault said. "This is going to just throw more or less a curveball into the mix."