The promotion of more privatization of water in Pennsylvania is unacceptable
Some are trying to promote and even incentivize the privatization of water in Pennsylvania.
Part of the problem is that they want to lower taxes on the rich, so privatizing shifts the costs to people who can’t afford it. And then the executives make out handsomely with high salaries.
A state representative in PA said a constituent, a citizen, a senior citizen in his district, is peeing in her backyard because she has to choose between flushing the toilet and buying food because her water bill has skyrocketed.
"It's A Scam" Dec 30, 2023 The Majority Report w/ Sam Seder
“they pay exorbitantly high salaries bonuses and stock options to their upper management when compared to the more modest financial compensation received by employees of publicly owned system in the order of millions of dollars”
The state rep in the video from the state assembly said that the private companies provide clean water, but for how long if they have all the control? We know how this goes. I used to be pretty confident with the private water company (named Pennsylvania American Water), but we’ve had numerous water main breaks in Scranton this year with danger warnings, much more than ever before.
My contact letter message to my elected representatives:
Stop water privatization. This is essential vital infrastructure for civilization to function, and the way that private water companies are ruining communities and disrupting the lives of citizens is unacceptable. Public utilities should be public.
I think we need to go in the other direction and get more oversight on the utilities, and when they’re public that’s a lot cheaper and easier because then they can’t privatize the profits and socialize the losses in shifty machinations.
A package of bills now before the House Consumer Protection, Technology and Utilities Committee would require utility companies to use lower values for newly purchased water and sewer systems when seeking rate increases, spread the impact over a longer period and improve transparency of the process. But Cicero called for lawmakers to go further and repeal the law.