Pennsylvania

need funding to pay for these practices to prevent water pollution caused by stormwater runoff on impervious surfaces. A stormwater utility fee does not unfairly affect farmers because it is based on impervious surface, which is not something farmland has a lot of in spite of what this article claims. In Albamarle County, Virginia, one of the localities with which I worked, a similar proposal was defeated due to lies and distortions the Farm Bureau spread among the farming community in a tea-party style knee-jerk reaction to a perceived tax. A stormwater utility is just as important as the water, sewer, and electrical utilities we depend on. The fees we pay for those services are not called a tax. The same should be said of vitally needed stormwater utilities. One of the lies the Farm Bureau spread was that the tax would pay for an expansion of city government, which was false. It was primarily needed to maintain and improve the existing stormwater management systems in urban areas where most impervious surface exists.