The dirty little secret is revealed today about who pays for the Consent Order -- though it was couched in vague terms.
On July 12: "Picente said the burden will likely land on the taxpayers of the part county sewer district, which includes New Hartford, Paris and Whitestown." ...
"This is a problem everybody knew about and nobody wanted to deal with it," Picente said. "The towns and villages knew about this — it's a violation issue and we're responding to that."
On May 24: "Within the next week, Picente said he also is planning to meet with representatives from the towns and areas affected, which include areas in the villages of New York Mills, Yorkville, Whitesboro, New Hartford and Oriskany and in the towns of New Hartford and Whitestown."
Today we discover:
"Ratepayers in the sewer district, not all county residents, will have to pick up the tab if state or federal grants can't be found to defray the costs of what could become a $66 million project."
I think this whole fiasco is eventually going to end up costing something north of $100 million dollars to clean up. Most municipalities in the state already require dedicated sewage treatment facilities for major projects, but that option doesn't even appear to be on the table. Instead, we're going to end up subsidizing the new construction of a massive wastewater infrastructure with taxpayer dollars. An expense that will far outweigh any potential tax income from those same projects.
