On Thursday, I detailed the Los Angeles deficit problems and the likelihood that L.A. residents were likely to see rate hikes in their water and power bills:
It's politically difficult to raise taxes or cut spending. The City Council wants to force the Mayor to force the Department of Public Works to provide the city with $20 million they have tucked away. The DPW doesn't want to send the money unless they get rate hikes. The rate hikes are likely to come. If the DPW actually sends the money to the city after the rate hikes is an open question.The DPW may be a bit too tight-fisted when it comes to spreading it's riches. Christina Hoag reports for MyWay.com:
"The political class that runs the DWP is exceptionally arrogant," said Jack Humphreville, who monitors the utility for Los Angeles Neighborhood Council Coalition, a residents' group. "There's a lack of respect for ratepayers."The DPW arrogance is a bit of a sideshow, as Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa's reckless spending ways during the boom period can't be fully covered even by the DPW's cash hoard.
From lactation contracts to pay raises, the DWP's moves have increasingly sparked the ire of the City Council and customers in recent years. But it now appears the powerful utility may have finally overplayed its hand.
The latest furor - over DWP's proposed rate hikes and refusal to contribute promised cash to city coffers - has spurred a push by a livid council to rein in the utility's autonomy.
Villaraigosa's style of management, like that of politicians in Greece and most around the world, has been to spend, spend and spend, while growing a fiefdom at the expense of taxpayers and the solid credit rating of the city.
The L.A. credit rating is now in crash mode and the taxpayers are fed up. "Fixing" the DPW problem is just another attempt to get at L.A. taxpayer money. It won't work unless water and power rates are raised dramatically. L.A. should simply default now, toss out the mayor and end the slow road to serfdom that the mayor has put them on. The people of L.A. have nothing to lose except their bills.
$50,000 measly dollars on child care services is the best argument you can make! That is a pathetic argument, what you should be complaining about is the outrageous contracts the city is giving to private companies to provide the city with services that its own employees are capable of. For example, take the 5 million dollar contract the city gave to google so it can revamp the city email system, and place sensitive police and fire department data in remote servers God knows where! The reality is that DWP has been subsidizing electricity for the citizens of LA for the past 20 years, as well as the city general fund consistently, and the rates are still 30% - 40% lower than private utilities in california. The problem is not the 50,000 lactation program, its the childish actions of the city councilmen and woman who refused to give the DWP the rate increase they needed to pay their bills, and continue contributing to the general fund.
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