U.S. Government Start Charging Tax For Collecting Rain Water

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U.S. government to start collecting tax from citizens who collect rain water

Residents in Ohio who want to collect rain water in their backyards will have to pay a mandatory tax imposed by the local government. 

Any resident installing a rain barrel in their yard will have to pay a $31 fee for the privilege.

Wearechange.org reports:

Last week, the Sun Post reported that it would cost just $1 to install a rain barrel.

That was based on a reading of a rain-barrel ordinance that City Council approved May 7. The ordinance established regulations for rain barrels.

The ordinance — while referencing another pre-existing code section — seems to state that the city fee for “storm water storage containers” is $1.

However, looks are deceiving.

What the ordinance did not say is that — under the other pre-existing code section — there is a base fee of $30 for storm water storage containers and other plumbing items.

So to calculate rain-barrel fees, residents should start with $30, then add $1 for each barrel they want to install.

Paul Deichmann, city engineer, believes the rain-barrel fee was established after 2008. It has remained unchanged since then.

But if the fee hasn’t changed, why did the city bother mentioning it — and the pre-existing code section — in the new rain-barrel ordinance?

The answer is that under pre-existing code, a rain barrel or barrels were referred to as a “household rain collection system.”

The new ordinance replaces that term “storm water storage containers” so that rain barrels are not restricted to residential properties, Deichmann said. After all, businesses might want rain barrels, too.

In addition, the city added a new fee for the removal of rain barrels from properties. It will cost the base fee of $30 plus $50 for each rain-barrel system for a total of $80.

“This was added because it is anticipated that removal of a rain barrel system may be complicated if downspouts going into the ground have been plugged as part of the installation of the barrel,” Deichmann said in a May 14 e-mail to the Sun Post.

Residents installing rain barrels might disconnect their storm-water downspouts from underground sewers and redirect storm water to the rain barrels. If they later remove the barrels, they might have to reconnect their downspouts to the sewers.

“It may require more than one (city) inspection to properly restore the drainage,” Deichmann said.

In addition, Deichmann pointed out that residents with rain barrels can earn credits toward reductions in their storm-water assessment fees.

The Northeast Ohio Regional Sewer District, starting next year, is scheduled to start charging those assessments to all property owners in the district.

If residents remove rain barrels, they would lose the storm-water credits, and the city wants to track that, Deichmann said.

32 Comments

  1. Maybe God will start taxing the governments for sunshine, the wind and the rain and double on the snow

  2. Maybe God will start taxing the governments for sunshine, the wind and the rain and double on the snow

    • The federal government reserved all water rights constitutionaly. There can be very real real reasons to regulate rain water and ground water. Im torn both ways. Ground water has to be replentished, rivers need their share for salmon and other fish and mammals. This continents largest water supply in the mid west is destined to be depleted this century because of all the wells used in farming. This whole earth is going to be in some serious trouble with available clean water in this century.

    • The federal government reserved all water rights constitutionaly. There can be very real real reasons to regulate rain water and ground water. Im torn both ways. Ground water has to be replentished, rivers need their share for salmon and other fish and mammals. This continents largest water supply in the mid west is destined to be depleted this century because of all the wells used in farming. This whole earth is going to be in some serious trouble with available clean water in this century.

  3. OHIO GOVERNMENT PEOPLE , YOU ARE SO FULL OF SCHITT I CANT BELEIEVE IT . YOU WANT TO
    CHARGE TO COLLECT RAIN WATER ,EVERYBODY WANTS TO BE REDUCING , RECYCLING AND RE USING . OH SCHITT IT JUST GOT IT .YOU PEOPLE MUST CHARGE FOR WATER COMING ONTO THE HOUSE AND GOING DOWN THE DRAIN . YOUR LOSING MONEY . SICK BASTARDS .

  4. OHIO GOVERNMENT PEOPLE , YOU ARE SO FULL OF SCHITT I CANT BELEIEVE IT . YOU WANT TO
    CHARGE TO COLLECT RAIN WATER ,EVERYBODY WANTS TO BE REDUCING , RECYCLING AND RE USING . OH SCHITT IT JUST GOT IT .YOU PEOPLE MUST CHARGE FOR WATER COMING ONTO THE HOUSE AND GOING DOWN THE DRAIN . YOUR LOSING MONEY . SICK BASTARDS .

  5. This is a blatant assault upon my religion. I am an Open-Air Christian. My Church is the great outdoors, openly exposed to nature is how I worship God and become one with Jesus. I consider myself to be Born Again and Baptized every time the pure rain falls upon my bare head. How dare they attempt to tax my Holy Water! How dare they attempt to regulate with Mammon what God has chosen to freely fall upon the just and unjust alike. This is a direct violation of my religious liberty!

  6. This is a blatant assault upon my religion. I am an Open-Air Christian. My Church is the great outdoors, openly exposed to nature is how I worship God and become one with Jesus. I consider myself to be Born Again and Baptized every time the pure rain falls upon my bare head. How dare they attempt to tax my Holy Water! How dare they attempt to regulate with Mammon what God has chosen to freely fall upon the just and unjust alike. This is a direct violation of my religious liberty!

  7. This is purely unconstitutional. No powers grant them that right to impose those taxes except what they unlawfully gave themselves.

  8. This is purely unconstitutional. No powers grant them that right to impose those taxes except what they unlawfully gave themselves.

  9. The headline is over-sensationalizing the story that was presented. What does a city ordinance have to to with the U.S. government charging tax for collecting rainwater as the headline states? When the headline is that misleading, it certainly makes me question the validity of the rest of the story as well. Is no one capable of accurately reporting facts? The article appears to be about a specific municipality in northeast Ohio, although it did not specify which one. From what I could ascertain, the fee was not about discouraging rainwater collection so much as concern about costs the city might incur due to individual homeowners altering the existing sewage infrastructure. If this is the case, then it seems fair to me that the individuals who choose to do so should bear the cost of doing it.

  10. The headline is over-sensationalizing the story that was presented. What does a city ordinance have to to with the U.S. government charging tax for collecting rainwater as the headline states? When the headline is that misleading, it certainly makes me question the validity of the rest of the story as well. Is no one capable of accurately reporting facts? The article appears to be about a specific municipality in northeast Ohio, although it did not specify which one. From what I could ascertain, the fee was not about discouraging rainwater collection so much as concern about costs the city might incur due to individual homeowners altering the existing sewage infrastructure. If this is the case, then it seems fair to me that the individuals who choose to do so should bear the cost of doing it.

  11. I would prefer South Africa to the US, but in any case, both have governments that are not interested in the welfare of their citizens:

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