Burning A Hole In Their Pocket
When I was a youngster and had a dollar or two in my jeans from mowing lawns or some other chores, I couldn’t wait to spend it. My mother would ask me to turn my pockets inside out because she wanted to make sure that the money hadn’t “burned a hole in your pocket.”
After reading Monday’s Avalanche-Journal, it would appear that when it comes to Lubbock Power and Light, many members of our City Council are behaving in that same childish manner. http://lubbockonline.com/local-news/2010-07-12/budget-forces-lpl-financial-debate
Less than a decade ago, thanks to rising fuel costs to generate electricity and a city staff (with the approval of the City Council) raiding the utility’s coffers, Lubbock citizens learned that their locally owned utility was close to bankruptcy and in danger of taking the whole city down with it.
After some painful cutbacks where dozens of city employees lost their jobs and a vote by citizens to place LP&L under a council-appointed board, the utility has made a dramatic comeback—so dramatic that it is planning to acquire the retail customers of its privately owned competitor.
Now that LP&L is back on its feet, the Council (with pressure from the City Manager and other staff members, no doubt) wants to resume its old ways in order to give raises to city employees and acquire doodads for their districts.
One way it plans on raising money is to require LP&L to provide the city’s streetlights at no cost.
This is nothing but a shell game. LP&L should be run exactly like a private business and should be reimbursed for the power for the streetlights and any other costs associated with the lights.
At the same time, a formula needs to be developed (if it already hasn’t) that will require LP&L to transfer funds from its coffers to the city based on the utility’s profits.
If something is not done quickly to stop the Council’s raiding of LP&L, it won’t be too long before LP&L will be nearing bankruptcy again.
