Board member Patrick Dowd said better news is the introduction of optional insurance that will be added to customer bills as of Jan. 1.
So the best news of the decade may be that Dowd and the rest of the PWSA board gave some crafty insurance company a whole slew of free customers with no work on the private company's part? Every year, Dominion People's Plus sends me paperwork on their extra gas-line insurance plan, and every year, I throw away the paperwork. That's my choice. This time, I have to go to a website and click a link to opt-out. Not cool. If people want insurance, they will opt-in. In good news, you still have the next 6 months to opt-out and receive a refund on any insurance payments you've made.
The real questions? How much of that $5 goes to the PWSA bottom line? Who has a nice cushiony job lined up after his board tenure? When can I expect an audit of this insurance company from Michael Lamb that discovers that this plan is making money hand over fist?
And most importantly, what was wrong with the old warranty system (which didn't pass along any fees to the end-user)?
Or does anybody agree with Dowd and want to convince me why this is the best news of the decade? I'm really curious why I should be happy about the PWSA shirking the responsibility of covering the old warranty system and effectively trying to raise my bill by 15-20% as a user who ranges from 1 to 2 thousand gallons per month. Perhaps the person who agrees with Dowd is the one person who had to cough up $28,000 in the past decade? But does that really mean we collectively should be ponying up $5 Million per year (83,000 customers at $5/month)?
And if this blog post hasn't swayed you on the scariness of the PWSA, check out the latest Pittsburgh City Paper article, "Water Torture."
4 comments:
Great post. I am going to comment on this same topic. Feel free to add me to your blogroll if you would like, I have you on mine.
So government mandated health insurance is okay, but government mandated water and sewer insurance is bad?
Recall that you are not a retired homeowner on a fixed income, as many of the rate payers are. What's your sewer condition? Vitrified clay, ductile iron, or perhaps even wooden pipe? Do you have it scoped regularly? Will you purchase or sell a dwelling within the city? Has it been dye tested to confirm compliance to the Consent Decree?
http://www.pgh2o.com/dyetest.htm
Does Dowd and the PWSA board have some 'splaining to do? Sure, but how many home owners within the city were requesting this assistance for several years?
These issues are catastrophic, but not new for the region. It is a slow, inertial creep which wasn't never addressed.
If PWSA wasn't formed, then the city of pittsburgh would have another $800 Million of general obligation debt to pay off.
This is the least unpleasant decision to make, from my perspective.
This PWSA insurance is a fly-by-night operation. Anyone who wants this insurance, gets regular letters from EVERY utility company in the region. If they wanted it, they would have signed up independently long ago. I don't want it, and I don't appreciate it being shoved down my throat at the last minute. In the least, advanced notice would have made this much more palatable.
As a note, people who do not have health insurance cause my health insurance rates to go up. I want everyone to have health insurance because I'm a selfish person. It's a nice side effect that it's also helpful to the recipients of health insurance. People who do not have PWSA's new insurance have no effect on my rates. It's a completely personal decision.
Thanks for this! I opted out.
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