Greg Prada accused of Class Warfare in EID cost study

Another EID increase??? This appears to be the typical bureaucrat way of attempting to increase revenue that defies the principles of economics. When demand goes down, you don’t raise the price to make up the difference. I find it very disingenuous that Brian Muller states that these Facility Capacity Charges (FCC’s) are being charged to new users of the system to pay for expansion when in fact the District has piled on $300 million dollars of debt over the last 10 years. E.I.D. already raised its Facility Capacity Charges back in 2008 to some of the highest in the region when the building industry started crumbling. Back in 2008, these increases were described as “steep” increases. It is well known that EID has crumbling infrastructure, lots of deferred maintenance and has had numerous cost increases in a post 911 world upgrading and retrofitting its facilities for the anti-terrorism requirements and also in a more regulated environment. The SWRCB also has influenced many of these added costs. The District hired a consultant, HDR in January 2012 and the consultant had several recommendations which included “reducing costs through a series of staff reductions, furloughs, and reducing planned capital improvements in 2012 – 2016 by $50 million, restructuring debt to phase in debt payments over time.” Have these other cost saving measures been implemented or is this just E.I.D.’s way of doing business as usual by trying to stick its inflated cost of service to ratepayers?