"We simply made a mistake and we apologized to the community." – Mayor John Degnan, 2006

A simple mistake? In 2006, the village of Brewster installed new water meters throughout the village. In recent debates, John Degnan has claimed this was a method of big-brother style government to track homeowners and landlords for irregular usage to see if they were harboring “unauthorized guests.”

Yet when these water meters were installed, in what was claimed to be an unforeseen circumstance, most local businesses received a much higher rate structure over their previous flat fee. This tax hike was applied retroactively, billing local business owners for almost a million dollar in water.

This “accounting error,” as it was called at the time, was made by the Mayor and the Village Treasurer and later found to be illegal. Revised bills were sent out, but was the problem solved? In an article from the Journal News, available on the following page, is seems as though water rates continued to rise under Degnan, more then making up for the missing million they failed to collect the first go-round. Now, many residents have seen their water and sewer taxes quadruple.

The money raised by doubling the water rates was supposed to go towards improving the village’s water system. However, in an August 2008 memo to the village board by the village environmental engineer, “odor issues” were still cited due to a sludge handling problem.