George Rebane
NID Rate Increase. Our local water utility, Nevada Irrigation District, has decided to boost its water rates over 33%, or over a third in the next five years. We are NID customers, and we protested the rate increase in writing before the hearing on the matter last Wednesday. Niether fish nor fowl, NID is somewhat of a mystery utility in these parts. Through its murky operations of power generation, recreation management, and control of all ground water in a tri-county area, it does deliver good quality water in a reliable manner. Of course it should, since we here in the Sierra ‘make’ our own water which is the envy of the rest of California.
Jo Ann and I protested the rate increase, not on some material grounds that they don’t need the increased revenues, but because they have not made the case for such a huge increase. They simply cited the usual increase in costs, and the need to pump up their rainy day reserve again. Their attempt at being open and above board was supposed to be fulfilled by disclosing their 2013-15 budget. (here)
This 115 page hernia pack would cross your eyes were you to attempt a reading of it. We did, and now we’re waiting for them to uncross. The only obvious takeaway was that $61M was budgeted over some interval during 2013-15, and you’d pay hell to find out what years that interval was as you went from page to page. They did state that the water service cost of operations would bring in revenues of about $18M per year out of which 63% would go to compensate their 170 or so employees. It wasn’t clear whether this included contributions to the budgeted munificent benefits the NID employees enjoy. It was, however, clear that no contributions would be made for the rainy day reserve; in fact, that reserve was being drawn down in the budget. In short, it was a very confusing read, and gave no clear indication why they needed more money.
NID’s customers are not potted plants. It would have been nice for them to tell us what particular costs they anticipated in the out years and why. What has been their experience over the years in having to fund outrageous acts of God – I assume the normal ones they plan for? Who all do they sell water to, and what rates will they be paying? How do NID salaries compare to California workers of similar skill/experience levels in the private sector, in similar utilities? (Is NID a closed sinecure for the ‘lucky 170’?) What is the current rainy day reserves level? What, if any, unfunded liabilities are there? You know, things like that. I myself would love to see the dataset of unforeseen expenditures over the last 50 years to get a feel for the arrival rate of such calamities, and to what extent (risk/probability level) they are planning for these with their now increased revenue stream. In essence, not much of substance was forthcoming out of that puzzle palace that is the NID headquarters in Grass Valley. But to my knowledge, no one has gotten such information (let alone data) in the past, and we’re not holding our breath.
‘Just Say NO!’ That has been my plea to our Nevada County electeds when it comes to passing down and enforcing more gratuitous regulations and ordnances mandated from on high. The latest is some cockamamie requirement for Californians to essentially replace the legacy plumbing in their houses when they seek a permit to do a property modification that has nothing to do with plumbing. Local artist RL ‘Bob’ Crabb’s nearby cartoon in the 11jan14 Union sums up the situation.
What’s worse is that as such regulations pile on, we hear (rumors?) that the honorables sitting in the Rood Center look forward to increasing county enforcement staff to go poke around and see if you’ve replaced a board or painted a trim without taking out a fee-ladened permit, and then having to put up with some numbnuts coming around later to inspect and pass on the job.
With this knuckle-under business as usual, our regulatory burdens will continue to grow until either we are behind barbed wire, or the torches and pitchforks come out – neither a good ending. At some point somewhere in this nation, some local jurisdiction is going to have the balls to stand up and just say NO to the next (especially insane) diktat from the feds or the statehouse. And if it is not Nevada County, then who will carry our water? If not this time, then when?
Detroit can be fixed, and PJ O’Rourke spells it out for us here. It is essentially a do-over to make Detroit into a Hong Kong with all the regulatory and tax reforms to get us there. It would also serve as a template for countless other cities sitting on the edge of fiscal disaster. The only thing standing in the way is the continued corrupt Democrat-infested socialism in city governments and statehouses. These sleazebags cannot abide any solution involving freedom and enterprise that will so glaringly expose their bankrupt policies which have lead us to bankrupt cities.
The latest jobs report corroborates RR’s long held view that the Great Recession is really Depression2. Technology augmented productivity gains have been steadily eroding the ability of tens of millions (now over 90M in the US alone) to competitively sell their labor. Instead of making a major change in course, our central planners are hyping hokey stats about declining unemployment and telling us that the economy is recovering. You can read the details here and here, but the bottom line is that the problem is big, growing, and best seen (nearby graphic) in how many people have left the workforce in the last twenty plus years as machine smarts exploded. Again, barbed wire with national policing (what do you think all the SWAT teams, billions of anti-personnel rounds, and urban assault vehicle are for?), or pitchforks and torches.
[15jan14 update] Let me begin by giving a hearty shoutout to Nevada County supes Ed Scofield and Terry Lamphier for opposing the latest ordinance that our local controllers have added to the pile. The new ordinance would require a county permit for holding an event on private property that involves ‘money changing hands’, purportedly this would be for noise abatement and other add-ons – one more activity that our mindful minders think they need to charge for and monitor. It’s just hard to believe that existing ordinances do not cover all such reasonable concerns. And to think that we are piling on these strictures all by ourselves; not a higher authority in sight that would pull funding for this or that if we didn’t comply. The common sense way to ease pain is to stop pounding your own toe with a hammer.
But back to the national jobs catastrophe. A reader reminds me again of the recent report about how technology is an equal opportunity destroyer of human labor at all levels (here and the ‘John Henry Law’). Even the lowly hamburger flipper is now i
n danger of losing his job to the machine that can make 360 gourmet burgers per hour. And here’s the puzzle – would that new gizmo make more sense for fast food and restaurant owners to acquire if the minimum wage were to be higher or lower? Have we found yet another new example of butt stupid as the number of unemployed soars and the workforce participation plummets? Apropos to this is Congressman McClintock’s floor speech on the budget today. Both Congressmen McClintock and our Doug Lamalfa voted against the $1.1T omnibus spending bill.
rebanesruminations.com 
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