As absurd as this sounds, it’s for real. Apparently NH has come up with the bright idea to impose a “rainwater runoff tax” on homeowners.
One can only imagine homeowners running the tax assessors off their property when they try to measure their rainwater transgressions to determine how much ‘tax’ they will pay.
This is more ludicrous than the ‘view’ tax!
“New federal storm water runoff permits and what they require have some communities around the country instituting new fees and property tax surcharges. New Hampshire could be next.”
Don’t count on it.
The article has been removed, but here is the gist:
Rain tax to fall on Granite State?
By GARRY RAYNO
New Hampshire Union Leader Staff
Monday, Apr. 26, 2010
MANCHESTER – What one New Hampshire official calls “a rain tax” could soon fall on Granite State taxpayers.
New federal storm water runoff permits and what they require have some communities around the country instituting new fees and property tax surcharges. New Hampshire could be next.
Compliance costs to nearly 40 southern New Hampshire municipalities would be steep — estimates are more than $4 million in Manchester and $2 million in Portsmouth in the first five years.
In a letter to the EPA, Nashua Mayor Donnalee Lozeau writes the city is in a preliminary stages of determining if a storm water utility is viable to pay for the operation, maintenance and improvements to its drainage collection system, but any decision is at least five years away.
Right now, she notes, the city does not have the money to meet the new permit requirements.