Should Taxpayers Pay for a Subdivision’s Gratuitous Water Supply?

Posted on November 22, 2010 by Jim

Per the Charlottesville Tomorrow story today: (bolding mine)

The Glenmore community has a single source of public drinking water, a 4-mile pipeline that runs along U.S. 250 east of Charlottesville. However, if Albemarle officials decide to add a backup storage tank, they will use $2 million of the county’s capital funds rather than ask the developers or Glenmore residents to pay for it.

“It is not something that is needed to provide [water] for Glenmore,” said James Bowling IV, legal counsel for the Albemarle County Service Authority. “It’s a convenience [but] one that you would certainly call a necessity if there was an emergency.”

See homes for sale in Glenmore.

This entry was posted in Growth and tagged , , , . Bookmark the permalink.
  • craigger

    Cumulatively, the glenmore community probably pays more than 1.5mm a year in albemarle property tax, so 2mm for their water tank doesn’t seem too egregious.

  • http://www.freeenterpriseforum.org Neil Williamson

    A small clarification. Ratepayers (not taxpayers) would pay for this as it would come from the ALbemarle County Service Authority Capital budget. This is a very different fund than the County Capital Improvement Plan.

    Neil

    • http://www.realcentralva.com Jim Duncan

      Thanks, Neil. Realistically, they’re pulling from the masses to pay for a few, no?

  • http://www.freeenterpriseforum.org Neil Williamson

    Not any more so than Glenmore residents paying for Crozet (or North 29) Capital improvements to the water system; which they have been doing through the ACSA CIP for their entire existance.