Monday, January 08, 2007
Delivering junk along with the water
Just as the buds are forming and preparing to bloom on the camellias, a load of manure has arrived in today's mail. The Lakewood Water District sent a letter explaining why it is passing along a 6 percent utility tax from the city onto its ratepayers.
Let me first say that I opposed the tax and the recent agreement with the water district. So if I had any political sense, I would shut up. But the letter is so wrong, it has to be corrected.
The letter explains the reasoning why the district signed the agreement to pass along a 6 percent water tax - a water tax which pretty much every citizen of a city anywhere pays. Now, the fact that almost every city's residents pay the tax does not make it right. But we ought to be honest in discussions of these things.
The letter states that the reason the district agreed to pass along the tax is that it wanted to "buy protection" from a city takeover of the water district. Now, I am unware of any effort to "take over" the water district. You do hear about such claims ... from the water district. Isolated members of the water district have been making up such a plot for years, and maybe they really do see people taking notes under the fir needles on the lawn. Heck, maybe the Trilateral Commission and evil members of Santa's reindeer gang have a plot going ... I don't have access to whatever brainwave transmissions the water district is monitoring. But the city of Lakewood has not and does not plan any takeover. I was there for the start of cityhood, as a reporter talking to every key figure for and against cityhood, and every city leader I have spoken with has thought that any such takeover is inappropriate.
For the elected officials of the Lakewood Water District - or whoever wrote that note - to claim they are "buying protection" is to accuse our city government of intimidation. I agree the tax as constituted is wrong. But let's not accuse each other of secret plots or seek to undercut other elected governments. That makes all of us who try to make Lakewood a better place look bad.
I'm not sure what more there is to say. The Lakewood water district did not "buy protection," but they did buy the right to be inaccurate. You have to decide if that's a good use of your water rates.
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Let me first say that I opposed the tax and the recent agreement with the water district. So if I had any political sense, I would shut up. But the letter is so wrong, it has to be corrected.
The letter explains the reasoning why the district signed the agreement to pass along a 6 percent water tax - a water tax which pretty much every citizen of a city anywhere pays. Now, the fact that almost every city's residents pay the tax does not make it right. But we ought to be honest in discussions of these things.
The letter states that the reason the district agreed to pass along the tax is that it wanted to "buy protection" from a city takeover of the water district. Now, I am unware of any effort to "take over" the water district. You do hear about such claims ... from the water district. Isolated members of the water district have been making up such a plot for years, and maybe they really do see people taking notes under the fir needles on the lawn. Heck, maybe the Trilateral Commission and evil members of Santa's reindeer gang have a plot going ... I don't have access to whatever brainwave transmissions the water district is monitoring. But the city of Lakewood has not and does not plan any takeover. I was there for the start of cityhood, as a reporter talking to every key figure for and against cityhood, and every city leader I have spoken with has thought that any such takeover is inappropriate.
For the elected officials of the Lakewood Water District - or whoever wrote that note - to claim they are "buying protection" is to accuse our city government of intimidation. I agree the tax as constituted is wrong. But let's not accuse each other of secret plots or seek to undercut other elected governments. That makes all of us who try to make Lakewood a better place look bad.
I'm not sure what more there is to say. The Lakewood water district did not "buy protection," but they did buy the right to be inaccurate. You have to decide if that's a good use of your water rates.
