NYC water is about to cost more money. Thanks, Mayor Adams

Need a drink of water?

It's going to cost you more money, thanks to some budget shenanigans from Mayor Eric Adams.

Media reports say that Adams is planning to charge the city's own Water Board $1.4 billion rent over the next four years to lease water and sewer systems.

It's a transparent, one-shot gimmick, like that time Gov. Mario Cuomo sold Attica state prison to another state agency for $200 million in order to help close a budget gap.

But don't cry any tears for the Water Board. A chunk of the additional cost is simply going to be passed along to consumers.

That's you and me.

The result is expected to be an 8.5% increase in our water bills, which comes out to around an additional $100 we'll be paying a year for water.

So much for Adams' pledge of no new taxes in his budget plan.

The New York Times was the first to report this waterboarding of consumers by the city.

We're truly over a barrel when it comes to water.

We need it to drink. We need it to bathe ourselves and to brush our teeth. We need it to cook. We need it to clean our clothes. We need it to flush the toilet. We need it to water our gardens and lawns.

Just try to do without water for a day.

So, of course, the powers that be are well aware that we have no choice but to pay whatever we have to in order to have water. We literally cannot do without it.

Hey, at least New York City tap water has always been hailed as some of the best in the world. Not only is it good to drink, but it's supposedly what makes our pizza and bagels so uniquely delicious.

That's something worth paying for, I guess.

And to be fair, New Yorkers on pay less for their water than the average paid by folks who live in the 30 largest cities in America. And single-family residences here use an average of 70,000 gallons of water a year.

That's a lot of water.

But the cost has also steadily gone up over the years.

And that includes whopping, double-digit increases each year from 2008 to 2011.

Think about that the next time you're taking that nice, long shower. Literally money down the drain.

So Adams' shell game with the Water Board is nothing but a tax without being a tax. It's a good way to avoid being labeled as a tax-and-spender. And a good way to avoid having any lawmakers have to approve of a tax increase.

And if you've ever been to a Water Board public hearing about a rate increase, you know that these things are done deals the minute they're announced. Just like toll and fare hikes are done deals despite the dog-and-pony show of public hearings.

There's no end to how the city and state connive to siphon more and more money out of us. Just look at the coming congestion pricing tax and how it just became an even bigger rip-off for Staten Islanders.

We see what they're doing.