Originally Posted by Erat

Is that for 3 months? Does that include sewage?

My bill was $317 for the last quarter, it's about $50 above average. Though, the female in my house does take long showers, I usually fill my hot tub once in that time, and I have a sprinkler system...

Originally Posted by 2slow

Ouch, that's just all kind of messed up. And I always wanted to move to Oregon (with Portland being at the top of the list) because I thought my water bill, taxes, etc would be much lower. Our trash used to be around $75 but then for some reason was reduced to about $46 and I'm happy to take that.


Anyone from Colorado (my second top place) wants to chime in and burst that bubble?

Originally Posted by DNMakinson

But he does not have lead in his water.

Originally Posted by DNMakinson

^^ Well, I hope you saw the humor, in spite of the facts.

Originally Posted by MartinezA92

Dude what? I take 15 minute showers and my water bill isn't nearly that high.

asked a friend in san jose what he pays and he said its under 100. and he lives with women.

Originally Posted by hox

Don't get me started or to borrow from Joe Perez, "Another Rant by Hox"

We currently pay $4.216/ hundred cubic feet of water. Seventh highest rate in the US. $84/month for trash which includes a fee because I live in a hilly area. Most of Portland has hilly areas, too hilly in fact to move any snow that may fall which leads to a thrilling afternoon of watching people crash their AWD suvs on the sheet of ice that forms after a few failed attempts.

Then our city leaders decided trash pick up should be every other week for the same rate. Recycling is every week. We have to freeze anything that will reek after a few days until the night before trash pickup. I pity anyone with a can full of diapers festering for two weeks who has these cans in their garage. Did I mention that trash cans must be moved out of site from the street or you get a nasty warning letter as you are not doing your part to make your neighborhood beautiful. This is CC &R that the city allowed our HOA to put in place.

Our water rates are so high, not because of a water shortage, (it rains all the time here) but because the city has deferred any upgrades to the water and sewer system. Due to its antiquated nature, the costs to repair this system to code is very high. The city is currently being sued by the Feds because they have not covered the water storage systems that any animal can fall into. We recently had a boil alert because someone was recorded urinating into the storage system. Of course the city will just raise the rates to cover the cost of the lawsuit

Same for the roads which have made me have to bend my miata exhaust after hitting a mountain of asphalt pushed up by the city buses. To raise $ they are now contemplating a GPS tracker for all vehicles to charge us on a per mile basis, along with a special gas tax. Those damn hybrids just don't use enough gas. Did I mention that my property tax ( I have a 8000 sq foot lot) is going to be $10,000 this year?

Portland has a few weird taxes too. For the past few years anyone 18 or older who makes >$1000 and lives in Portland had to pay a $37/year Arts Tax which was marketed as a mechanism for putting arts and music into public schools. We later found out that for at least one of these years, the administrative costs somehow used up a good deal of the money. Then we found out that this tax was being used to support commercial ventures such as the ballet and opera companies which was never disclosed. Don't mind supporting the arts, but I hate the lack of transparency.