Opinion: The Great Lakes Water Authority is a Bad Deal!

The Great Lakes Water Authority is a Bad Deal !

Whenever politicians try to make excuses for their failures they tend to use the phrase “Its not perfect….”. That was the excuse that Governor Snyder made when he attempted to burden Michigan Tax Payers with what would have been the largest tax increase in Michigan in 50 years last May. He was defeated by a 4 to 1 super majority.

Now Brooks Patterson and Warren Evans are using the same tired excuse for the Great Lakes Water Authority that was finalized in June of 2015. This deal was “negotiated in secret by a federal mediator after tensions over the past months threatened to derail the talks.”

Brooks Patterson said: “There is a sense of reality that really encompassed the whole 200 days of negotiation, and that was, there is only one game in town. If you want water, you have to buy it from Detroit. It is a monopoly. We are trapped in it. So knowing that, we tried to carve out the best deal that we could.”

Wayne County Executive Warren C. Evans said the deal “is far from perfect”

Macomb County Executive Mark Hackel, who has criticized the lack of transparency in the negotiations, said he was disappointed the deal went through.

The State Legislature erred in deregulating water rates twenty years ago and we have seen corruption and unfair water rates result. The only solution to this 363 million dollar per year problem is to restore fair and honest State Regulation by the MPSC to this Giant Monopoly (Detroit Water and Sewer Department), as it had been between 1967 and 1995.

Please see the following Presentation for more information: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=caLFp9HH2i0 or search Youtube for “Water Rate Fairness”.

If you agree that we have an unfair water rate situation, I ask you to contact your state representatives to fix this major problem in Michigan Governance.

Please consider sharing this with your friends and neighbors.

Thanks,
Bob Cushman - Northville Township

Mechanical Engineer – Purdue University

bobcushman@wowway.com

P.S. If you live in Northville or Plymouth you may contact your State
Representative at: kurtheise@house.mi.gov
If you live in Northville, Plymouth, Canton, Livonia or Wayne you may
contact your state Senator at: SenPColbeck@senate.michigan.gov

You can find your legislators and their email addresses on this link:

http://www.legislature.mi.gov/(S(mphtnzcyu052trcppvfse0nz))/mileg.aspx?page=legislators