DWP Rates Going Up Again -- Is Your Housing Still "Affordable"?
The City Council has approved yet another rate increase by the DWP, ostensibly to pay for the higher cost of natural gas. The DWP also entered into some deal to buy out-of-state wind-power generated electricity. (I'm sure THAT was a bargain.)Anyway, according to the L.A. Times, "The average DWP residential customer whose electric bill is now $606 annually could potentially see that rise incrementally to $680 by 2010."
(By the way, is YOUR electric bill that low? Or are they counting everyone in the household -- including kids, dogs and parrots --as a customer?)
In view of this rate hike, you should double-check your figures to make sure your housing is still "affordable housing." The definition of "affordable housing," straight from HUD, his "Housing for which the occupant is paying no more than 30 percent of his or her income for gross housing costs, including utilities."
So if this rate hike pushes you even one penny above the 30% mark, you no longer live in "affordable housing."
Posted by Walter Moore @ 8/17/2006 08:38:00 AM
18 Comments:
City to DWP customers: Sit down, shut up, and hold on!
First of all, let me say that I am the proud owner of 4 of those horrid windmills just outside of Palm Springs. They were sold to me by my tax attorney in the 80's as the newest rage of tax shelters!
I can paid $25,000 apiece for them and they were 'supposed' to generate an income of about 10% to me.
Let me tell you that in 25 years, I have NEVER RECEIVED a dime in revenue for these damn things!
Secondly, let me tell you that they DO NOT EVEN GENERATE ONE TENTH OF ONE PERCENT OF THE ELECTRICITY CONSUMPTION IN THIS STATE!!!!!!
THEY ARE WORTHLESS!!!!!!!!
We are being so screwed by this city council! What fools they are making of us! The reason our bills will rise is because of the outrageous raise they gave DWP employees.
These people are robbing homeowners BLIND!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Isn't it time to revolt????????
THEY WON'T EVEN ALLOW CITIZENS TO SPEAK ANYMORE!!!!!!!!!!!!! THEY DON'T CARE WHAT WE THINK!!!!!!!!! HOMEOWNERS AND TAXPAYERS HAVE NO VOICE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
EVERYTHING IS FOR THE MEXICANS AND NOTHING FOR ANYONE ELSE.
YOU KNOW THE MOTTO....LA RAZA...EVERYTHING FOR US AND NOTHING FOR OTHER RACES!!!!!!!!!!!
REVOLT, AMERICAN TAXPAYING CITIZENS!!!!!!
REVOLT!!!!!!!!!
THROW THE BUMS OUT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
12:11
I've got a bridge in SF I'd like to sell you. Fucking idiot.
12:51
Fuck 'yo Mama!
Alger touted being on the Green Energy commission for Mayor Hahn during his recent campaign for the Assembly. Maybe he should tell us why we need to pay more for Green Energy when people can not afford current energy cost.
It seems he fought the DWP than became their lapdog for an appointment to a commission. Can you say, SELLOUT...
5th century generators to be updated to 7th century generators, isn't that a progress, OH YEAH!!! its a upward swing...
I am a single person living in an 1,800 ft house on a 6,500 sq.ft. lot in LA City. My DWP bill is $400 every billing cycle or $2,400 a year. Where do they get $600 a year? There must be a lot of small apartments in that average. I even work to conserve energy and water.
My uncle invested in those windmills in the 80's and lost his ass. They went backrupt a few times. I think they are almost at break even now after their last reorganization, still no profits for the investors. The problem is that the windmills were not meant to profitably make natural energy. They were a tax shelter scam. That's why you lost your investment, buddy. There were a ton of these scams in the 80's when the government was offering tax breaks if you invested in them. It was just like the dot com stock scams in the late 90's. It was just the scam du jour.
August 17, 2006 1:06 PM,
Hey, Trotsky, you bought one of the windmills?
What a maroon!
Seriously, you're a total dumbass!
1:21 -- Liar! Liar! Liar!
Sampling of recent rate increases and bond measures:
-The L.A. City Council agrees Wednesday to reinstate the Energy Cost Adjustment Factor...Power rates will increase $10 to $15 annually
-A billion-dollar "affordable housing" bond will go before Los Angeles voters in November after the City Council voted unanimously Wednesday to put the measure on the ballot...The bond measure would cost city property owners an average of $14.66 annually on each $100,000 of assessed property -value for 20 years.
-In the last eight years, the LAUSD has won passage of four bonds totalling $13.6 billion. As a result, the owner of a home with an assessed value of $500,000 will pay an extra $720 annually by 2009 compared with $425 last year.
-Now that a $96 million jail bond voters approved in 1986 is nearly paid off, county officials are preparing another jail bond for the November ballot to reopen closed jails.
-At the state level, a number of new bonds have been proposed this year, including a $600 million library bond on the June 6 ballot and a $9.95 billion high-speed passenger train bond on the Nov. 7 ballot.
- AND "Since 1988, the state budget has increased 500 percent from $20 billion to $100 billion."
sources: Daily News, Daily Breeze
VOTE NO on housing bond measure or at least give me a CM's salary !
Anon homeowner 1:35, the $606/yr. figure is misleading because it only includes charges for power, not water. As an apartment dweller, I pay for power and my landlord pays the water bill...$606/yr. is close to what I pay.
We must remember that government, especially a utility like DWP, is a business...it has to raise prices to keep up with costs. It seems rather silly to criticize the City Council about a 15% price increase over 4 years. Homeowners who pay $70 more a year for electricity aren't going to default on their mortgages and lose their "affordable" housing.
If Ralphs were to increase their prices by 15% over 4 years, would you go out and protest, or even write a blog post about it? Of course not; Ralphs is a business with ever-rising costs. Then again, Ralphs forced its union to lower the wages of new employees, while DWP caved into its unions with a big wage increase. Maybe DWP could learn something from private industry.
Clowncil theme song:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CXi4LLuK0GQ
August 17, 2006 8:51 PM,
This is how you spend your nights, scouring YouTube for clips to post on Mayor Sam?
9:12
Yup, and you spent your night reacting to me.
August 17, 2006 9:18 PM,
Nope, not really. This is only the second time I post on this blog!
^
you mean "posted" on this blog (past tense). Anyway, welcome newbie poster!
August 18, 2006 9:00 AM,
No. My last post was actually my second post ever here. Present tense at that point. Just like this is my fifth post on this blog, present tense.
Thanks for the warm welcome. Let's see how fun anonymous political baiting can become!
Then it should have read: "This is only my second post on this blog." But you're still welcome.
VOTE NO on the housing bond measure !
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