Posted on 02/16/2009 6:48:40 PM PST by Jet Jaguar
HOUSEHOLDERS would be charged for each flush under a radical new toilet tax designed to help beat the drought.
The scheme would replace the current system, which sees sewage charges based on a home's value - not its waste water output.
CSIRO Policy and Economic Research Unit member Jim McColl and Adelaide University Water Management Professor Mike Young plan to promote the move to state and federal politicians and experts across the country.
"It would encourage people to reduce their sewage output by taking shorter showers,recycling washing machine water or connecting rainwater tanks to internal plumbingto reduce their charges,''Professor Young said.
"Some people may go as far as not flushing their toilet as often because the less sewage you produce, the less sewage rate you pay.''
Professor Young said sewer pricing needed to be addressed as part of the response to the water crisis.
"People have been frightened to talk about sewage because it is yucky stuff, but it is critically important to address it, as part of the whole water cycle,'' he said.
"We are looking at reforming the way sewage is priced and this plan will drive interest in the different ways water is used throughout Australia.''
The reform would see the abolition of the property-based charge with one based on a pay-as-you-go rate and a small fixed annual fee to cover the cost of meter readings and pipeline maintenance, Professor Young said.
The pay-as-you-go rate would provide financial savings for those who reduce their waste water output.
Professor Young and Mr McColl will promote the plan nationally through their Droplet, a newsletter whose 6000 subscribers include state and federal politicians, water policy specialists and economists around the country.
Professor Young said a sewage pricing plan, like the one proposed, was already used in the US.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.com.au ...
Yellow is mellow, brown goes down.
must be one of the traditions the left wants to get rid of .
My backyard would see a lot more watering.
It sure rolls downhill, doesn’t it...
This would discriminate against people with diarrhea.
Taxing water by volume. A leftist’s dream.
Yep, I have seen a butt plug with a coin slot. If you fart, you got to put in two quarters to let it out. Greenhouse gases are really bad.
So how does paying 50 cents fix the problem, err ahh, uhh, we
ll buy offsets from Al Gore.
If the tax is more than postage, then perhaps people could just mail stuff to the legislature rather than wasting all that water.
Oh no! It’s the attack of the flush counters!
I assume they’ll put an odometer on every crapper.
When they went after the smokers....
Oooh, 30-per-basement-window advocates aren’t gonna like this!
This is merely the first step in the larger ‘evacuation tax’ program. The second part is an additional tax on excrement in excess of six inches in length, which must be lowered by hand...
Like the signs "If it's yellow let it mellow, if it's brown flush it down."
Then, oddly, a variation of this was used in the benediction at the inauguration (that weird "poem"). That was truly bizarre on so many levels.
May as well go back to the outhouse.
Take your wash water, your shower water and your dishwater and use it to water your grass, The only water used for flushing is the brown water.
“Pay as you GO” ... hee hee
Rest his soul, George Harrison would have a new lyric to add to his song: “If you take a dump, I’ll tax that too”.....
Call it a fee or a tax but I pay for water by volume now.
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