Parking by the color of curbs, New Year's bonus for garbage and solar panels due to the tax
Types and quality of public services, cost and features vary depending on the state in which you reside. The rules of parking, electricity prices, types of subsidies in New York will differ from the same package of services in Hawaii or Alaska. As they say in the USA, "All politics is local" - all politics, in our case - municipal policy, is local, that is, depends on local principles.
In order not to have a monopoly position, in each state, as a rule, several companies are engaged in providing public services for water supply, water disposal, electricity supply, gas supply. At first glance, everything is like ours. But most companies have long switched to online payments, an alternative to which is only mail. You will not find in any US bank a queue of pensioners to a single window, where they pay utility bills. The company to each of the customers sends all the accounts independently, and the service consumer should inform the service provider about the performance of its counters.
By the way, one of the differences is that some companies, along with the testimony of your counters, also enter the indicators of neighbors, anonymously, of course, and also the average statistical indicators of consumers by state. So you can compare how you are economical about consuming resources, and this is the government's tactic, designed to make citizens save water, gas and light. With the same motivation, utility companies have different packages of services that allow them to save both resources and the money of tenants, which is very much by the way, given that Americans spend on average about 7% of annual income to pay bills for "communal". Services even in the most modest apartment will cost at least $ 200 (more than 5 thousand UAH) with a minimum salary of Americans at the federal level - $ 7.25 per hour, in the states of California, Massachusetts and the District of Columbia - $ 10, $ 10 and $ 10.5 per hour respectively.
The authorities of each state regulate tariffs for “communal” separately. The increase in the cost of a service in a particular state may be because one of the utility companies began to suffer losses. In this case, the company writes a petition to the state authorities so that the state raises the prices for their services, providing a report on the audit conducted and proving that this is necessary for the company to continue its normal operation.
One of the most expensive benefits in the United States is electricity. Because several electricity suppliers represent the US energy market, there is no single fixed rate in the country. So, in 2017, the average price per kilowatt-hour was $ 0.129, according to the US Energy Information Administration. A typical family consumes about 908 kWh per month, which means that electricity alone costs the average American over $ 100. But there are ways to save money. In most houses in the living rooms there are no chandeliers, because here people mostly watch TV and lighting - a superfluous pleasure.
But, again, electricity tariffs largely depend on the state - from the lowest in Idaho to the sky-high in New York and in Hawaii. A similar situation is in the case of natural gas. The average price for gas per year is $ 604 per state. On the water prices also vary depending on the region. According to the US Environmental Protection Agency, the average family uses 300 gallons of water a day (1135.62 liters) - this is enough to allow six people to take a bath. This luxury costs $ 50 a month. In some southern states, there is no heating. In the central - the payment for this service is much cheaper than in the northern ones. Often in apartment buildings, central heating is used, without meters. In this case, the cost of heating will be included in the rental price. The use of a gas boiler in a cold winter will cost an average of $ 100 per month.