Six months ago, no one could have guessed the Modesto Irrigation District’s (MID) General Manager and General Counsel would be leaving under a cloud formed by a cascade of Falling Water. Six months ago, no one would have predicted that a slow-talking cowboy from eastern Stanislaus County would take on Allen Short, Tim O’Laughlin, four MID Directors, and the Modesto Bee and prevail over them all. Newly-elected Director Larry […]
MID Falling Water Charge
Bee Scales New Heights of Hypocrisy
Long-time readers of the Modesto Bee have known that for the last two decades, any time the Bee takes a position on an issue it also abandons objectivity and fair play. Thus, it was no surprise that when the Modesto Irrigation District’s (MID) proposed water sale to San Francisco was rejected, the Bee immediately began a campaign to get the sale back on the table. The means the Bee […]
MID Falling Water Charge: Subsidy or Slush Fund?
According to Stanislaus County Supervisor Jim DeMartini, news that local farmers have been receiving subsidies amounting to $89 million over seventeen years was as big a surprise to farmers as to anyone else.“Ninety-nine out of a hundred farmers have never heard of the Falling Water Charge,” said DeMartini last Friday.The Falling Water Charge is the controversial fee (some would say “tax”) that the Modesto Irrigation District (MID) imposes on […]
Read the Memorandum That May Drown the MID in Falling Water
The Valley Citizen has obtained an internal Modesto Irrigation District (MID) memorandum. Almost ten pages long, the memorandum provides legal analysis of possible consequences for the MID of Proposition 26. Proposition 26 was approved by California voters in 2010. Its purpose was to prohibit unjustified fees and costs imposed by entities that provide public services. In 1995, the MID added a “Falling Water Charge” to its bill for […]
Is the MID Taxing Customers Illegally with the “Falling Water Charge”?
Just when it looked like things couldn’t get any worse for the Modesto Irrigation District (MID), the heavens opened and delivered a world of trouble in falling water. In the arcane parlance of irrigation districts, “falling water” is water that falls from dams and spillways to provide electricity. Some districts impose on their customers a “Falling Water Charge.” The Falling Water Charge is an attempt to capture the value […]