I am on the town council in a historic Virginia town of about 700. We provide water and sewer services to in-town residents. In the 1970's, the town built its sewer using state and federal grants to defray almost all of the cost. Connection and availability fees were too low. When we realized we needed to replace it several years ago, all hell broke out because the state and federal grants had disappeared. We have an impressive business base in town, but, as the council member leading the utility, the debt spread over about 500 customers was daunting, about $5m (state of the art membrane technology). We were lucky to get the builder of the inn agree to pay for the new plant in exchange for allowing them to build a 168 room inn, as their availability fee. It is now under construction. Now, we are trying hard to make sure the availability fees will actually cover the cost of the infrastructure that new development consumes. But I must wonder how towns that are not as lucky as us will make do. Will they build cheap plants that are bound to fail? Or will the US start supporting its infrastructure again? We are replacing old water mains and spending more to repair old sewer lines. People still complain loudly that we should cut rates, but that would be ruinous.
Thank you, Mark Snyder -----Original Message----- >> False distinction. By definition excessive taxation would not be good >> governance. >Then we clearly do not have good governance today, and throwing more >money at it won't create it. Case closed. That's right we don't have good governance today. Due to the excessive influence of the cons/noecons the public sector is starved. This morning NPR reported that 20 years ago the US spent 7 percent of GNP on infrastructure, now it is just 4 percent. That's why roads and bridges are crumbling and water main breaks are a daily occurance. ************************************************************************* ** List info, subscription management, list rules, archives, privacy ** ** policy, calmness, a member map, and more at http://www.cguys.org/ ** *************************************************************************