Public utilities are known for financial stability. Without competition, they generally don’t have to worry about remaining financially solvent. However, in the last few decades, technological changes have undermined the bottom line of some public utilities. When American Telephone and Telegraph was exposed to competition via deregulation, it tried to adapt in order to survive. Eventually, because of its weak financial condition and poor competitive structure, the company sold out to Southwestern Bell, […]
Modesto Irrigation District Water Sale
Marsh and Kieta: First Year Reviews
Roughly a year ago, Garrad Marsh and Joe Kieta took the helms of two of our most cherished institutions, the City itself and the City’s only newspaper. Faced with similar challenges in the form of falling revenue, reduced staffs, and a struggling economy, Marsh and Kieta have had only a year to turn things around. While neither has succeeded, it’s too early to count either man out. Here’s our review […]
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 […]
Water—It’s a Dirty Business
It’s axiomatic that truth is the first casualty of war, and that’s just as true of water wars as of wars between nations.Throughout the Modesto Irrigation District (MID) water sale controversy, background buzz has maintained that unless the water is sold, “They’ll give it to the fish,” or, less often, “They’ll give it to Los Angeles.” “They,” of course is “the government,” and it doesn’t much matter whether federal […]
Valley Leaders and Media AWOL on MID Water Sale
The more you look at the proposed Modesto Irrigation District (MID) water sale to San Francisco, the more apparent it becomes that MID manager Allen Short and his allies on the Board of Directors are engaging in a dangerous game of sleight of hand. The fundamental premise of the sale—that MID has water to sell—is so patently false as to make one wonder why the MID has dared voice it. […]