An Update on the Rain Tax
The people of Northeastern Pennsylvania work hard for what they have. In Luzerne County, Lackawanna County, and across our region, families work hard, pay their bills, and take ownership of their responsibilities. They deserve the same from the government. For too long, they’ve seen promises come and go from Washington without real follow-through. That's why many residents are rightfully frustrated when they receive a quarterly bill for a “stormwater fee” and discover that the roof over their heads is part of the calculation.
If you live or own a small business in Luzerne County, there is a good chance you face the reality of literally having to pay for the rain that falls on your roof, runs off your driveway, and hits the sidewalk in front of your home. And why? To pay for the cleanup of the Chesapeake Bay, a body of water more than 200 miles away.
This burden is called the Rain Tax, and it didn't happen by accident. It’s the direct result of an executive order signed by President Obama that created an unfunded mandate, one that Washington and Harrisburg have spent more than a decade handing off to you instead of paying for themselves.
This all began in 1983, when Pennsylvania signed the original Chesapeake Bay Agreement, making the Commonwealth a voluntary partner in Bay cleanup efforts coordinated through the Environmental Protection Agency.
Then, in 2009, President Obama signed an executive order directing federal agencies to dramatically accelerate Bay cleanup. That order transformed what had been a policy commitment into a pressure campaign, demanding measurable results from every state in the watershed. Pennsylvania then passed along this unfunded mandate to local municipalities without a plan and without help.
By 2018, the rules tightened further. For the first time, local governments were required to hit quantifiable stormwater reduction targets or risk heavy fines. Facing these costly requirements, 32 municipalities in Luzerne County banded together to manage the cost regionally with a public tax. Tens of thousands of homes, businesses, and vacant lots began receiving bills, and they haven't stopped since.
To make matters worse, government-owned properties are exempt from the Rain Tax. The very governments that designed this system and failed to fund it wrote themselves out of the contract, leaving residents and small business owners to shoulder the cost alone.
Pennsylvania has been working toward its Chesapeake Bay cleanup goals for more than 40 years. After four decades of effort and tens of billions of dollars spent, the results have fallen dramatically short of every target the program has ever set and the financial pressure on individual taxpayers has intensified.
This isn't just my read on the situation. I formally raised these concerns with the EPA, and on August 26, 2025, the agency's Region 3 office confirmed in writing that stormwater fees aren't required by federal or state law, but that municipalities remain bound by strict, quantifiable pollution-reduction targets tied to the Bay cleanup effort, backed by the threat of heavy fines if they don't comply. In other words, Washington set the requirement, walked away from the funding, and left it to Luzerne County's 32 municipalities to figure out how to pay for it. That's the Rain Tax in a nutshell.
At some point, continuing the status quo is not environmental stewardship. It is asking working families in Luzerne County to keep paying for a program that, by every measurable standard, is not delivering. It’s time to take a hard look at whether this program is working and whether small communities 200 miles upstream should be bearing the burden they are being asked to carry.
Let me be clear: I am a strong supporter of clean water, and I’ve backed that up with action. I’ve secured nearly $6 million in federal funding for water, sewer, and stormwater infrastructure projects across NEPA and requested another $1.7 million, and I have championed legislation to help municipalities modernize aging water systems without breaking the bank.
My problem with this program is not its goal, and it is not the jobs it creates for blue collar workers in our communities. My problem is that Washington and Harrisburg have pursued that goal for decades while refusing to fully fund it, and when the bill comes due each year, they drop it at the doorsteps of families and small businesses in Luzerne County. Organizations such as the Wyoming Valley Sanitary Authority are not to blame; they are simply following the requirements of an unfunded mandate. And, unless the root cause of these costs is handled, the Rain Tax could soon spread beyond Luzerne County, into Lackawanna County, and across NEPA.
That is why I am advocating for a change to this unfunded mandate. My office has been working directly with the Trump administration to reverse the Obama-era executive order that created this mess and to kickstart the process of ending this unfunded mandate once and for all. I want to commend the President and his team for being so open to finding a solution that delivers real relief for the people of Northeastern Pennsylvania. I will keep that drumbeat going while looking for a legislative solution to provide real relief for our small towns and boroughs.
However, federal action alone is not enough. Washington and Harrisburg made this mess, and it’s up to both to clean it up. Governor Shapiro and the General Assembly need to answer a straightforward question: should Pennsylvania prioritize its own citizens or a cleanup program for a body of water that isn't even in Pennsylvania? The funding gap they identified in their own documents and ignored isn’t a clerical footnote. It’s the reason the Rain Tax exists.
The people of NEPA are not the ones responsible for this problem. I've been working this issue since before I was even sworn into office, hearing from hundreds of constituents who want to fight against a tax that no one voted for. I remain committed to holding both levels of government accountable, and I’m going to make sure the families of NEPA know exactly who is fighting for them.