The good ... and the Bad

I see in the News-Gazette that Champaign and Urbana, along with Peoria and Pekin, are exploring the possibility of buying Illinois American Water Company's assets in their communities.

Personally, I see this as a good idea. And a bad idea. And what could be a very wrong-headed idea.

In my mind, it's a good idea because with the right kind of local leadership, there's no way local control could be as bad as the service we've been receiving from a German company which doesn't care a whole lot about anything about Champaign-Urbana but how much money it can make.

Frankly, since the company was acquired and sold again over the last decade or so, service and quality has consistently declined. I remember some time ago (a looooooong time ago) CU water was judged in some kind of competition as the best-tasting in the state. Either they haven't been judging area water lately or CU's water has declined in quality. Given the amount of sediment and other solid and semi-solid stuff coming out of my faucets in the past few years, I judge it's the later. The quality's declined.

If local control/ownership can solve that problem. I'm all for it.

But it also likely is a bad idea. I suspect that since the water system has been foreign-controlled over the last few years, investment, maintenance and upgrades have been held to a minimum. The quality of water and service attests to that. We went a lot of years in CU without boil orders before they started popping up in the past few years.

Given that, municipal ownership likely would mean a huge investment in upkeep, maintenance and in upgrades that are much needed but have not been performed in the last few years for economic reasons.

That's likely to make the purchase cost-prohibitive.

And finally, the purchase could be wrong-headed.

If the cities are looking for the water system to turn a profit then they're getting into the venture for the wrong reasons. It is not a municipalities' mission to be a profit-making entity. It's a municipalities' business to provide services. The police department does not attempt to turn a profit on tickets, nor on parking meters. Believe it or not. The bus system doesn't attempt to make a profit on its service, just pay for the service, maintenance and salaries. And buy new buses when necessary. (Really.)

It'd be nice if the water system could pay for itself, including paying for maintenance and upgrades. Looking for profits? Thank you, no. That amounts to gouging residents. Gouging taxpayers. Unnecessary taxation. A government is not and should not be a profit-making enterprise, because any profit would come at the expense of its residents. Its taxpayers. Me.

I hope the cities look seriously at the purchase. But I also hope they go into it realistically.

And so it goes.

Randomly speaking

This that and (some of) the other:

-- Sorry (somewhat) to see IlliniPundit hanging up his present form of a blog. Although it was often entertaining, it also was usually a one-trick pony politically: Conservative = good, Liberal = bad. Nevertheless, it often sparked some interesting discussions. And, since the blog will continue with a long list of conservative Republicans listed as authors (including the pre-existing illinipundit???) there may not be as much change as people think.

-- I've seen bad before, but Saturday's Illini game against Iowa (IOWA for Chrissake!) was pathetic. Hate to say it, but it seems that as Dee does so do the Illini. Augie must stay out of foul trouble, even if they're ticky-tacky little fouls, At the same time, he's gotta play strong every time out; Randall must learn to go to the basket hard and strong; so must Arnold, who should be a strength inside. And the whole darned team's gotta remember that the Big 10, top to bottom, is NOT Pan American. It's a muscle conference.

-- An awful lot of Americans are being murdered in Iraq to create what, a Sunni-Shiite theocracy?

-- Can someone explain to me why asking tough questions of a Supreme Court candidate would be considered somehow obstructionist? Are not members of the minority party allowed to hold opinions and ask questions? From the loyal opposition, according to the AP:

"Your record raises troubling questions about whether you appreciate the checks and balances in our Constitution — the careful efforts of our Founding Fathers to protect us from a government or a president determined to seize too much power over our lives," said Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill.

"In an era when the White House is abusing power, is excusing and authorizing torture and is spying on American citizens, I find Judge Alito's support for an all-powerful executive branch to be genuinely troubling," said Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass.

Said Sen. Russell Feingold, D-Wis.: "We need judges who see themselves as custodians of the rights and freedoms that the Constitution guarantees, even when the president of the United States is telling the country that he should be able to decide unilaterally how far those freedoms go."

That's not obstructionist. That's raising legimate concerns, concerns every American should seek answers to.

-- So sorry to see Tom DeLay will be replaced as House Majority Leader. He was such an easy target, given his long record of ethical lapses. Not to worry, there's a whole GOP cut from the same cloth from which to pick

-- Interesting that the NG publisher thinks that public officials should not be paid for serving. Guess he thinks salaried employees will be allowed by their employeers to take 3-4 months off with pay every year to serve. Bet that wouldn't be allowed at the NG. Only the moneyed class would serve in his perfect world. Or is that his point?

And so it goes.

This and that

Stuff I found interesting.

-- If Pat Robertson truely believes Ariel Sharon's stroke was divine punishment for "dividing God's land." then at least Pat will have soneone interesting to talk to in hell.

-- Anyone who believes the media intentionally misled members' families in the recent coal mining disaster by broadcasting innacurate news that the miners were safe belongs in the same handbasket as Pat. However, there are a number of media members, particularly those in the electronic media, who need to revisit the meaning of the word confirmation. They weren't malicious, but they certainly were irresponsible and unprofessional.

-- 11 more U.S. Troops were killed today in Iraq. That brings the total to 2,193. Is it worth it, just to build a permanent al Quada base in the country? From Reuters:

George W. Bush and his Republican party face pressure at home over the rising American death toll, but the U.S. president said on Wednesday a cut in troops would be based on the situation on the ground and decisions by military commanders, not a timetable imposed from Washington.
-snip-
Thursday's deaths take the number of U.S. fatalities since the start of the war to oust Saddam Hussein to 2,193, according to Reuters figures.

It was the highest daily U.S. death toll since December 1, when 11 U.S. soldiers were also killed, and was also the deadliest day in Iraq overall for four months.

-- Anyone still question whether Dee Brown is a legitimate first-team All-American?

-- School vouchers - a veiled attempt by rich white parents to keep their children out of racially mixed schools - took another shot in Florida recently.

In a ruling expected to reverberate through legal battles over school choice in many states, the Florida Supreme Court today struck down a voucher program for students attending failing schools, saying the state constitution bars Florida from using taxpayer money to finance a private alternative to the public system.

The 5-to-2 ruling will shut down a program that Gov. Jeb Bush has considered one of his chief accomplishments at the close of this school year.

It's an encouraging trend. If vouchers catch on, the only folks paying taxes for the public schools will be childless couples (like me & the wife).

And so it goes.

Blogrolling

Bookkeeping for 2006

I'm going to be updating my blogroll in the next few days. Those who haven't been doing much posting lately (a relative term subject to my whims) likely may be disappearing.

Additionally there are a few new local blogs out there which may or may not merit inclusion. Some show promise. Some may not be worth it. Some I haven't made up my mind on yet.

Any ideas? Any nominations?

Anyone care?

And so it goes.

Go figure

I hate to think that I'm sounding anti-development or anti-growth here, but I just can't quite understand that in 2006 the Champaign City Council in all its wisdom would approve an apartment/condo complex with clearly and admittedly inadequate parking.

Why would they do such a thing?

Do they think the upscale yuppies who are gonna buy the condos can stack their multiple SUVs on top of each other? Do they honestly believe that claptrap that they're trying to appeal to urban residents who WON'T have or have need to rely on vehicles. Just who is that? Workers have cars. Students have cars. Retirees have cars.

The way I figure it, any upscale (read expensive) condo means at least two occupants. Two occupants in 2006 means two people working outside the condo which means at least two vehicles. There are 259 units. There are 200 parking places. I'm a liberal arts major, but even I can do that math.

In the mean time, let's consider continuing the debate about why we should cut back or eliminate MTD service in the Campustown area, where the ill-fated Burnham project is to be built.

Oh, sorry, I forgot. Parking's not the issue. It's all about profit. Profit for the developer. Tax money for the city. And decades of parking problems for downtown.

All completely logical in a free-enterprise system, I guess.

And so it goes.