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Re: Water privatized without public oversight
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Home away from home
 
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One particularly disgusting practice is the issuing of tax liens for failure to pay water bills - and UW/JC contunues this practice. Private water companies should collect debt the same way as any other private corp and not steal people's homes for unpaid water bills. UW's choice of JC rep says it all:
http://www.nj.com/hudson/index.ssf/20 ... s_seeking_a_comeback.html
Posted on: 2014/12/30 20:31
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Re: Water privatized without public oversight
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Home away from home
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We have no oversight now, so thinking we'd have less with a corporate provider is disingenuous. Tens of millions in overcharges in JC. Booker's pal in the Newark Watershed Commission giving herself about 500K in severance pay, 400K of which she got while she was still working. Millions more went to his former law partners. The East Orange Water commission covering up bad water test results, among other things. (They sell water to other communities, like South Orange). The chief is going to jail over this.
http://www.nj.com/essex/index.ssf/201 ... anageme.html#incart_river
Posted on: 2014/12/30 20:04
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Re: Water privatized without public oversight
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Home away from home
Joined:
2013/3/29 21:43 Last Login : 2023/9/5 18:27 From Bergen Hill
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Quote:
[color=blue]This shouldn't actually be a question regarding ownership. Water is a commodity that is necessary for life. It is not something that should be monopolized like many other goods. The second issue is the paucity of oversight. As we see with just about every private sector run industry, when black walls go up and the patrons cannot see what they are doing, bad things happen. The third, while you mention the poorly run PATH, check out how great the privatization of the Welfare department has gone.
Posted on: 2014/12/30 18:34
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Dos A Cero
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Re: Water privatized without public oversight
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Home away from home
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Various articles on the issue - I've linked to just one, here - suggest there are pros and cons to both public and private control of water. The cons, on the public-ownership side, are disinvestment in infrastructure in order to reduce costs; the cons on the private-ownership side are higher rate, however there may be more investment in infrastructure upgrades.
I would ask if there are any real benefits from privatizing the system - as I see with my daily interaction with PATH, NJTransit, MUA, the product could stand a lot of improvement. Who's to say cutting edge improvements are not worth higher fees? The other question I have is what is the benefit of public involvement on this? The little research I've done (and I doubt many JC residents would not bother looking into the matter at all...) doesn't leave me with a clear answer. http://www.newyorker.com/business/cur ... -should-control-our-water
Posted on: 2014/12/30 18:26
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Re: Water privatized without public oversight
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Home away from home
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Of course, in Hudson County, a Democratic run city can cash in with a private utility and Wall Street behemoth KKR that netted them $150 million. But residents got a 8.5% rate hike, then a short honeymoon, then up to 4% annual rate hikes after that-and they didn't need to sell their water source. Just leverage it.
So if they can do that without a referendum they could pretty much do anything anyway. Those Hudson County Dems at it again! http://www.nj.com/hudson/index.ssf/20 ... xample_of_a_bad_deal.html
Posted on: 2014/12/30 17:27
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Re: Water privatized without public oversight
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Home away from home
Joined:
2013/3/29 21:43 Last Login : 2023/9/5 18:27 From Bergen Hill
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Considering it quotes a sponsor as being Republican, it wasn't purely a Democratic push. However, they are quite guilty of letting this go through. Maybe you'll hammer the Republicans that are pushing this nonsense... I won't hold my breath waiting.
Posted on: 2014/12/30 17:00
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Dos A Cero
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Re: Water privatized without public oversight
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Home away from home
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I wonder how much Fulop would ask for the JC reservoir out by Route 46? He's quite adroit at screwing JC taxpayers about water, like he did recently by not returning the overcharged water fees to residents but adding it to the general fund.
Posted on: 2014/12/30 16:44
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Re: Water privatized without public oversight
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Home away from home
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Because corruption extends equally across both parties. Think of what a win this is for the politicians. They get to have decades of gross mismanagement and diverting money that should be used to repair infrastructure into more frivolous purposes such as slush funds. Then, when the chickens come home to roost, rather than raise taxes to drum up the money necessary for infrastructure repairs, they can simply privatize the asset. The private company will proceed to make the necessary repairs but jacking up rates to do so. This leads to the same out of pocket effect as a dramatic tax increase, but without it actually being a tax. Then these same politicians can crow on about how taxes didn't increase under their "leadership." It's a great racket and easy to see why it's appealing to politicians on both sides. Of course, the average citizen gets completely screwed but by the time they realize this, it's way too late.
Posted on: 2014/12/30 16:38
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Re: Water privatized without public oversight
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Home away from home
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All 24 Democratic State Senators voted yea on this.
Unanimous.
Posted on: 2014/12/30 16:20
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Re: Water privatized without public oversight
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Home away from home
Joined:
2013/3/29 21:43 Last Login : 2023/9/5 18:27 From Bergen Hill
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What is our state legislature doing sending a bill this absurd to the dumpster truck's desk?
Posted on: 2014/12/30 16:14
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Dos A Cero
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Water privatized without public oversight
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Home away from home
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Posted on: 2014/12/30 16:04
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