Stormwater fees expected to go before voters in flood-prone New Orleans
19th February 2024 · 0 Comments
By Greg LaRose
Contributing Writer
(lailluminator.com) — Just days after an intense rainstorm caused yet another round of flooding, a push is under way to collect stormwater fees from nearly every property owner in the city – including those with exemptions who haven’t been required to pay drainage system taxes.
A citywide ballot proposal is expected to go before voters in November that will ask their approval of a stormwater fee based on a property’s size and how much burden it places on the city’s drainage infrastructure. Revenue from the fee would go toward drainage maintenance work and green infrastructure projects that lessen stormwater impacts.
For single-family homeowners, the fee would be phased in as current property tax millages devoted to drainage expire. Commercial properties would be assessed the fee as soon as it takes effect – a date that has not yet been determined. Larger sites – such as the Superdome, the Morial Convention Center and tax-exempt college and medical campuses – could be billed tens of thousands of dollars per month to account for their drainage needs.
Details on the proposal were shared Wednesday (Feb. 8) during a presentation at Lakefront Airport from The Water Collaborative of Greater New Orleans. Starting in 2022, the nonprofit organization has conducted community surveys and workshops, canvassed city neighborhoods door to door and studied best practices in other cities as part of its Water Justice New Orleans initiative. Data was collected from more than 10,000 people locally, and nearly 3,300 residents were interviewed in person for feedback on city drainage issues.
Jessica Dandridge, the Water Collaborative’s executive director, stressed that urgency is critical, as the city continues to lose residents, resulting in fewer property owners and a shrinking tax base. After a decade-long post-Hurricane Katrina resurgence, according to Census figures, New Orleans’ population has decreased every year since 2016. The city counted 369,749 residents in 2022, still well below the 455,000 mark before Katrina in 2005.
It has to be done, and we don’t have time to wait,” Dandridge said in her call to enact a stormwater fee as soon as possible.
For purposes of its presentation, the Water Collaborative used Orleans Parish assessor’s data to set the average single-family residential property size at 2,500 square feet. That number was used to create an equivalent residential unit or ERU. Fees for residential and commercial properties will be based on these ERUs.
Water Justice recommends the city hire a consultant to determine the amount of impervious surface area for every property in the city, which will factor into their respective stormwater fees.
For a point of reference, collaborative staff looked at where other cities have set their ERU rates. In Baltimore, for example, monthly fees range from $4.33 for less than 820 square feet of impervious surface to $13 a month for more than 1,500 square feet.
The New Orleans proposal will likely include a similar tiered fee structure, according to Rebecca Malpass, the Water Collaborative’s research and policy director.
A major grievance of New Orleans private property owners has been seeing their property tax bills increase while sizable nonprofit corporations and tax-exempt institutions aren’t billed at all. The stormwater fee proposal would apply to all property owners, although Dandrige said some organizations such as small businesses and neighborhood churches could seek exemptions. Any exemptions would be phased out after three to five years, giving property owners enough time to factor stormwater fees into their future expenses.
Figures from the Orleans Parish assessor for 2024 show properties valued at more than $3 billion for tax purposes are constitutionally tax exempt, compared with $5.3 billion worth that are taxable. The $3 billion figure does not include more than $488 million in homestead exemptions for people over age 65 and disabled veterans.
The nonpartisan Bureau of Governmental Research reported that property taxes generated $600 million for New Orleans in 2019, or nearly half of its total tax revenue for the year.
The Water Collaborative’s approach does offer relief to businesses and entities with large parcels that aren’t equipped to retain water on site. Large commercial property owners would be able to apply offsets against their fees under the proposal.
For example, the Superdome could seek a credit if owners invested in water retention features on its downtown footprint or put money toward a citywide forestry project. The Convention Center would get credit for stormwater it directs into the Mississippi River.
Voters will also be asked to approve another aspect of the stormwater fee system, one that involves two public agencies that frequently struggle to gain public confidence. A city charter change would place management of all drainage infrastructure under the Sewerage and Water Board. Currently, the city’s Department of Public Works handles all catch basins and street-level drainage pipes that feed the Sewerage and Water Board’s larger pipes, culverts and canals.
Dandridge said a frequent complaint of survey respondents was the difficulty in filing complaints and getting follow-through from the proper department.
To ensure accountability, Dandridge said, community advisory groups would be created to evaluate how money raised from the stormwater fees are spent. The Water Collaborative recommends it be split between the Sewerage and Water Board, which would use its share for drainage upkeep, and the city’s Department of Parks and Parkways, where green infrastructure projects would originate.
The stormwater fee revenue would not replace state and city money, which would still be needed for large-scale drainage system work, Malpass said.
The Water Collaborative also backs the creation of a new city Department of Resiliency and Sustainability. The latter currently exists as an office under the mayor’s purview, but a full-blown department would give the New Orleans City Council more direct oversight of its finances, Dandridge said.
She also called for a publicly accessible website to be created so property owners can track how fees are calculated at every address in the city and see how the revenue is allocated.
Severe weather this earlier this month put stormwater in vehicles parked along streets and into lower-lying homes and businesses. Compounding the overwhelming rain was the latest breakdown of an aging turbine that powers city drainage pumps. Also, residents learned the city has yet to touch a $10 million allocation for cleaning catch basins, the first line of defense against street flooding.
Last year, the Louisiana Legislature granted authority to the Sewerage and Water Board, a state-created entity, to act as a stormwater utility so it can establish fees. State lawmakers also passed a law that requires voters to approve the assessment and collection of any stormwater fees.
The ballot measure will come from the New Orleans City Council. District E Councilman Oliver Thomas, who chairs the public works committee, took part in Wednesday’s presentation and mentioned opportunities the city had decades ago to be at the forefront of stormwater management – only to become complacent with climate change.
Thomas also recalled when the business community successfully defeated a drainage tax renewal in the 1990s.
“We got comfortable,” Thomas said. “…Mother Nature always wins. Now we just have to come up with a way that we can win, too.”
This article originally published in the February 19, 2024 print edition of The Louisiana Weekly newspaper.
