Jeebus fucking cripes

Has anyone noticed how much water bills have gone up in Indy?
This is highway robbery. This is the bill for a condo nobody is living in (and thus, no water is being used) with an estimated usage of 100 cubic feet of water last month (they only physically read the meter every two months):
Water base charge……..$7.55
Water volume charge….$1.30
Water sales tax………….$0.53
Sewer base charge……..$3.77
Sever volume charge…..$6.32
Total………………………$19.47
Nearly twenty bucks because they claim I used a unit of water last month. Now here’s the real ripoff: What it costs when they actually read the meter.
Water base charge……..$7.55
Water volume charge….$2.60 –
Water sales tax………….$0.30
Sewer base charge……..$3.08
Sever volume charge…..$5.18
Total………………………$13.51
You see what I see? “Sewer volume charge” of $5.18 in a month when we put NOTHING down the sewer! In fact, they overcharged us the month before by 200 cubic feet!
Plus, why are we paying sales tax on water? Is water a luxury? I thought we didn’t pay sales tax on groceries because it was regressive and hurt poor people disproportionately. So why are we paying sales tax on water?
I can’t believe the sheer gall of a supposedly “public” utility to raise the rates on a required commodity when what they supply is the rankest, most chlorine-stanky undrinkable concoction it’s ever been my displeasure to drink. Which is why I don’t, we have a water cooler with two built-in Pur filters that renders it barely drinkable.
It’s enough to make me want to drill a well. Shit, the water table’s only 3 feet down and two drops of liquid bleach to the gallon is all you need to purify it.
(Kidding about that last paragraph. Just kidding. Although it’s true enough about the water table and the bleach.)