Friday, January 15, 2010

Increased PWSA Smarminess In the New Year

Maybe you, like I was, were busy around the holidays. Maybe you, like I did, let this little snippet of PWSA (Pittsburgh Water & Sewer Authority) news slip by:
Board member Patrick Dowd said better news is the introduction of optional insurance that will be added to customer bills as of Jan. 1.

"It's the best news of the day, of the year, perhaps of the decade," said Mr. Dowd, chairman of the authority's finance committee and a Pittsburgh city councilman.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

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.

n'at said...

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.

illyrias said...

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.

Lady D said...

Thanks for this! I opted out.