The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1902-04-01


should pay for exactly the quantity OF
/ water they consume. Eleven months ago
! your Board authorized itself to put d me-
/ ter on any place where water Is consum-
| ed, and IL such meter showed that the
price OF water consumed at the meter
rates exceeded the schedule of rates as
sessed against the property, then the
consumer should be liable for the excess.
This plan was put in operation and under
1t your Board placed meters on about SEQ
| saloons. In some cases this has resulted
| to the satisfaction of both the consumer
and the city, and there could not arise at
| this time any strong objection to the poll
icy II it were not that your resolution re-
| curing meter on every saloon in this
city occurs IN connection with provision
| among the revised meter rates, which will
| cause the water used by the saloon keep
/ ers to be sold to them at an increased
| rate of s20-50 per million gallons. They
have to pay at present about s179.50 a mill
| lion gallons for water, which your Board
| buys for s35 a million gallons, and the res
| olution submitted to me. proposes to
| charge them about $500 million for this
water.
| Your communication accompanying the
| eIn metered water, the three (O lowest
rates only have been temporarily increas-
ed" / fail to find any mention Of the
new rate you have created, which is the
| one referred to above, affecting every
liquor dealer in this city.
1t is manifestly impossible to estimate
| the increased income to the city from
this single new rate, which is to become
| the highest rate for metered water on
the whole schedule of metered rates; and
which will apply, probably, to every one
of the more than LOCO saloon keepers in
this city. They are not large consumers.
This rate covers them almost exclusively.
Not until a year has passed and the rec
ords of your department can be exam
| ined to show exactly how much water
is consumed by these thousand and more
liquor dealers will 1t be possible to dis
cover the increase to the income of your
department from this raising of the rate
by $20.50 on each one of such consumers.
Furthermore I am reliably informed
that this new and exorbitant charge will.
affect the small manufacturers In this
city. 1t is not in accord with the policy
of making the city inviting to those who
vii furnish employment to labor, and.
/ by locating here. increase the city's indus
tries and contribute to the prosperity of
our local merchants to menace
them with a scale Of water rates
subject to ''readjustments, as you
There should be some assurance of sta
bility in the cost of water to manufac-
turers who have taxes and water rates
to consider before deciding to erect their
plants here; and the last item ever to be
molested by a Board seeking to resent
an action by a coordinate branch OF the
citv,s government should be the table OF
metered water rates which affect every
form of industry. Certainly, 1t should be
here, il anywhere, in the relations be-
tween the city and its most important
taxpayers and employers of labor, that
a reliable and fixed policy should be pur-
sued. The conduct of your Board should
be inviting to the confidence of business
men rather than an occasion for uncer-
tainty or alarm.
! There is no excuse for raising rates for
water to such consumers in the face OF
the fact, with which they are equally
familiar, that the price already charged
them is from four (D to nearly seven ~
times its cost.
The increases of 10 cents per 1000 cubic
feet on. the cost to the consumers Oh
2,ooe. 600 to 2,5o0000 cubic feet, and IS cents
ner thousand to those using upward OF
the latter quantity. means increases to
them OF $3.50 and $40 per million gallons
respectively. There is also an increase OF
ss.e5 per million on the third item you
mention AS these consumers already
nav s133 and S126.35 and $3.50 per million
the increase is altogether without justi-