Month: December 2003

Call them — irresponsible … Call them — unreliable … Throw in — undependable too … Yes, it’s undeniably true — the Congress of the United States makes Bart Simpson look like Averell Harriman.

The grownups have left the building. Good grief, what a horror show.

Thanks to David Chen of The New York Times for catching one little horror that might have gone unnoticed. “Senate Rejects Plea for Extra Year of Filing for 9-11 Awards.” Only 60 percent of the families who suffered losses on 9-11 have so far filed for compensation, presumably because of the notorious confusion and difficulty surrounding the process, with massive amounts of paperwork required. The deadline is December 22nd, and administrators of the Victim Compensation Fund have been scrambling for weeks to encourage families to apply. Language difficulties and in some cases lack of citizenship make it even more complicated and frightening for some.

Senator Frank Lautenberg of New Jersey tried a classic tactic just before adjournment — going to the Senate floor and asking for unanimous consent. Couldn’t get it. Republican leaders opposed.

Here’s an immortal quote from F. James Sensenbrenner Jr. (R-Wisc.), chairman of the House Judiciary Committee: “The chairman views the extension as unnecessary and has concerns that it would provide a disincentive for people to file.” Uh-huh.

And you may be wondering, given the condemnations of the Medicare “reform” bill from both left and right, which side actually won. It’s so fabulous — they both lost. The Wall Street Journal, which is furious about the bill, is right. So is The Nation, and it’s right too! Hooray! A bill so awful absolutely everyone hates it! Yes, it is a huge new entitlement costing $400 billion over 10 years. No, it will not help many senior citizens! It’s the silliest bill you ever saw — it has a hole in the middle of it just like a doughnut, and it will be used to destroy Medicare. It uses taxpayer money to help drug companies and insurance companies and HMOs, all the while running up debt, debt, debt.

And did they win ugly. The Medicare bill went down in the House — it lost. And then the Republicans just held the vote open, for three hours, from 3 a.m. to 6 a.m., until Tom DeLay could bludgeon some sleep-deprived members into changing their votes.

The same morons who wrote this bill also passed, again this year, for the third year in a row, more tax cuts for corporations so that regular people will have to pay more and we have even less money with which to do anything useful. Not that they let that stop them — they were in there just appropriating pork barrel like there’s no tomorrow. Whee, what a giveaway. Santa has nothing on them. All you had to do was be a big special interest donor to the Republican Party, and it was whoopee time at the Capitol. The only bad news for the big corporations is that the Republicans couldn’t get the energy bill, the ultimate Christmas gift for the oil, gas, coal, and nuclear industries, passed. But wait ’til next year.

Ooops, they also failed to meet their most basic responsibility — the $820 billion spending bill is two months overdue. The good news is that when passed, the spending bill will gut gun-control laws and cut money for AIDS in Africa.

At least we’ll never have to listen to Republicans calling Democrats “big-spenders” again. To hell with the gag reflex, the laughter alone will be deafening. What a Never-Neverland they live in, just like Michael Jackson. What’s so maddening is that we have nothing to show for all this spending — our education hasn’t been improved, our health-care system is still falling apart, the air is getting dirtier, and we’re killing the oceans, lakes, and rivers. There’s no planning, no investment, no thought for the future. They’re throwing away the seed corn, and we’re sitting here watching it happen. It’s not just the money they’re throwing away, it’s democratic traditions — bipartisanship, compromise, sound public policy.

Am I exaggerating? I don’t think so — you look at the legislation and tell me. This country is dirtier, poorer, and less fair as a consequence of breathtakingly irresponsible misrule. Twenty-four percent of American workers now make less that $8.70 an hour, and they have effectively lost their right to unionize.

As Harold Meyerson reported in The Washington Post, “When European employers look to the United States, they see roughly the same thing that U.S. employers see when they look to China: millions of low-wage workers who have all but lost the right to organize and a government intent on keeping things the way they are.”

It has been apparent for some time that much of the corporate elite in this country is blinded by greed, not just to long-term interests but to simple honesty. I think the same thing is starting to happen to our political leaders.

Molly Ivins writes for Creators Syndicate and the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.

FEES, FEES, AND MORE FEES

We’re doing great, says MLGW.

You can do better, says Mayor Willie Herenton, and you’re not the only one with budget problems.

The city is also in critical need of a sewer rate increase next year and faces a very real probability of a property tax increase of 25 to 35 cents in fiscal year 2006. Depending on how the economy does, the city might even need a 10-cent increase next year (about $2 a month for a $100,000 home). In light of that, Herenton asked MLGW and the Memphis City Council to consider delaying part of the utility’s requested seven-percent rate hike for another year.

The proposed sewer rate increase, the first in 22 years, would raise the average residential sewer bill by $2.17 a month. Rather than present it separately, Herenton put it in context with property taxes and utility fees in a personal presentation to the City Council Tuesday.

It was Herenton’s first specific warning of a property tax hike during his upcoming fourth mayoral term. He apparently decided to lay out all his cards while the council was examining MLGW s budget and getting the public stirred up about their utility bills.

While it may be a monopoly, MLGW would like to be seen as both more compassionate and efficient than those corporate monoliths in the Internet, cable television, and telephone sectors who raise rates whenever they feel like it.

Your hometown utility wants to be your trusted friend.

MLGW took out a full-page newspaper ad and President Herman Morris wrote an opinion column for The Commercial Appeal‘s Sunday editorial page. The average residential customer increase, it was helpfully noted, was projected at $10.35 a month, or 35 cents a day, or less than the cost of a postage stamp.

The mayor, noting a number of service complaints, was not entirely sold nor, according to aides, appreciative of Morris for pressing ahead.

In addition to his comprehensive look at taxes and fees, Herenton presented plans for a call center for city government and its affiliated agencies. FedEx will lend its expertise.

If the mayor gets his way, MLGW will get a rate increase but not all at once. The utility has proposed the seven-percent general rate increase to compensate for increased costs of anti-terrorism measures and the extraordinary costs of the summer wind storm — not all of which have been reimbursed by the federal government.

Political decisions have also raised MLGW’s costs. One year ago City Council members, not wanting to play Scrooge, ordered the utility to defer winter cutoffs and reduce home deposits and reconnection fees to assist cash-strapped customers. MLGW says the measures, coupled with other programs to help the poor, cost $9 million a year.

Two years ago city officials agreed to finance $30 million worth of bonds for the FedEx Forum with MLGW’s annual $2.5 million payment in lieu of taxes from the water division. Otherwise that money could have been used to lower rates or offset costs.

The last time the utility raised its water rates was in 1995. Gas and electricity have been steady since 1993. There were small rate reductions in 1998-2000.

In a letter to council members last week, Herenton said MLGW appears to spend an unnecessary sum on advertising even though it is a monopoly and has invested $30 million in an automated billing system he says has problems.

The call center is in part a response to growing concerns about customer service complaints regarding MLGW that got worse after the July wind storm. Herenton is well attuned to citizen complaints from community and business leaders. Like most Memphians, he lost power himself for days after the storm. The mayor appoints Morris and the five MLGW board members, including the mayor’s pastor, the Rev. James Netters of Mt. Vernon Baptist Church, and his longtime political supporters CME Bishop William Graves and minority business consultant Franketta Guinn; television executive Olin Morris; and businessman L. R. Jalenak.

They oversee an operation with 2,800 employees, nearly 400,000 customers, a $250 million annual operating budget and a $112 million capital improvements budget. Utility financing is a complex entity in itself. MLGW uses 12 percent of TVA s total electrical output. Earlier this year, MLGW struck an agreement to prepurchase $1.5 billion worth of electricity, a move the utility says will save it $15 million a year for 15 years.

All in all, a lot of numbers to digest, but Herenton decided that citizens deserve to see them all at once and prepare for the worst.

In a blistering critique, Mayor Willie Herenton all but gave MLGW President Herman Morris and five board members their walking papers Tuesday.

The surprise announcement, coupled with an admission that a property tax hike is likely within the next two years, came at an executive committee meeting of the City Council, which is weighing MLGW’s request for a seven-percent rate hike.

Conceding that he does not know the utility’s fiscal situation as well as he knows city finances, Herenton said MLGW needs its first rate increase in eight years.

“I fully support MLGW’s request for additional revenue,” he said.

He suggested, however, that it be phased in over two years, with the increase in gas rates postponed until October of 2004. And he said the question of utility rates was secondary to the city’s overall financial needs and to MLGW’s performance.

He then proceeded to rip MLGW for “costly mistakes in technology,” wasteful construction of a facility on Whitten Road, low morale, bloated salaries and benefits, “self-aggrandizing” advertising, top-heavy executive ranks, and “a number of employees who have bad attitudes” particularly in customer service.

Herenton appointed Morris, an attorney formerly with the NAACP, and the five board members, including his pastor the Rev. James Netters. Their terms have expired but it is not uncommon for board members to continue to serve.

Herenton said his management style is to give subordinates freedom to do their jobs until they mess up.

“I’m into MLGW’s business because there have been some bad decisions,” he said, speaking firmly but without anger or sarcasm to a packed committee room. “We’ve allowed MLGW to operate as an island unto itself.”

He said, in all apparent seriousness, that he intends to nominate “private citizen Willie Herenton” to the boar, triggering a predictable round of “King Willie” outrage on local talk radio stations. He did not mention Morris or any board members by name. Morris was in the committee room and listened carefully but declined to comment afterwards.

Herenton has had a testy relationship with MLGW since he made an aborted proposal to sell it in 1998. Two events apparently set off his critique. First came the devastating wind storm last July and MLGW’s response to it. Herenton said service complaints spilled over into the mayor’s citizen’s service center because callers could not get through to MLGW. More recently there was an MLGW non-response to a letter that Herenton took as something of a snub. The mayor said he informed MLGW officials of his thinking two weeks ago and “they made no attempt to meet with me.”

“I guarantee you in the future MLGW will have management that will not hesitate to meet with the mayor,” he said.

Herenton said council members should consider the proposed utility rate hike in the context of a a sewer fee hike he said is vital and the strong probability of a property tax hike of 25 to 35 cents by 2006.

Council members will decide on the rate hike while Herenton gets to make the calls at MLGW’s board and presidency. The mayor had sharp words for councilman Joe Brown as he got up to leave the room. He reminded councilmen that he had worked with 12 (out of 13) of them as chairman. Brown’s turn is coming next.

“You’ve got one vote, Joe, one vote,” he said. Then, for good measure, “you don’t run nothin’” as he strode out of the room.