Money Well Spent

"Bureaucracy" is never having to say you're sorry.

Government always has a plan for us.

In 2010 it was scam on the American people known as the “Affordable Care Act,” or ..more lovingly known as “Obamacare.” During the roll out of the healthcare.gov (unicornfarts.org) site, there was little demand, and it wasn’t until other aspects of the law destroyed traditional insurance plans that the site began to see broader use.

The price tag of course was a healthcare system that collapsed in terms of value, requirements that people buy a product in order to remain a free citizen, and about a trillion or so dollar funneled into the pockets of those well connected enough to be a part of the scheme.

Federal ‘health’ insurance asserted itself into our lives with a full blown partisan takeover, and a traitorous piece of garbage in the Supreme Court rewriting the law so that it had some semblance to legitimate authority.

The die was cast and many years later that same turncoat delivered the goods by refusing to allow the nation’s highest court to actually do the ONE job it has any legitimacy in doing. The inability for complex and controversial issues between the states to be decided in any venue, added to the inability for constitutional limitations to be applied was the end of legitimate authority any administration has here.

We are now Venezuela.  Our Republic has expired, and sadly  – many don’t even know it yet.

But I digress.  Government has a plan.

Even the local governments which are cashing in big on the biggest fraud perpetrated in our lifetimes.  Grand Traverse County alone is getting $18 million to mitigate the damage caused by ‘the China virus.  Traverse City, a couple million as well.

Every county in the country is getting payola, and eagerly lapping it up. In all likelihood, there will be no county, no matter how conservative the elected representatives, that will say “Nah we don’t need that.” Its a fact Jack.

And the people who got their $1200 pay off per person are not going to give up their ‘windfall’ either. Money with no strings is easy to take, right?  And government needs as much as it can cause ..there is always a plan.

Traverse City for example, own an electric utility which no longer produces electricity.  At some point the operating authority said “coal is not the future,” and shuttered it’s power plant opting to buy it’s power and re-market it to the customers in the pretense of providing some great service.

The hydro electric Dams which were loaned to TCLP were broken down by their use and no maintenance, and now have been removed to foster a return of a river to it’s natural state. The single windmill that the utility used to hawk ‘green’ energy at volunteer rates of double the cost, was eventually sold to a private company that was only able to keep it spinning a couple more years.

But they had a plan.

The dams were left to rot at great expense to county taxpayers and the public and private grant writers. When the lease expired in 2012 or so, TCLP was awash in cash.  Millions that belonged to Traverse City ratepayers, and nowhere to put it.

But as those who are perpetually government oriented do, the operators of TCLP saw the oncoming freight train of high speed internet.  What a way to reward the ratepayers further!  Without realizing that government cannot compete (as seen in the Obamacare debacle) with real live frree enterprise, it dropped some major investments in the emerging sector.

And it’s not about to stop now.  In for a penny (or few hundred million of them), in for a pound as they say:

The municipal utility in Traverse City, TC Light and Power, is continuing the build-out of a $22 million project to provide fiber broadband internet. But the number of customers signing up for the new service falls well below projections of what will be required to make the project economically viable.

They had a plan.

Marvelously, the money already spent is already producing government sized results too!

“In February, the city-owned utility added a total of 12 new customers — one commercial customer and 11 residential customers — bringing the total number of active internet customers to 178, according to a report presented to the utility’s board.”

My business  had a bad month in February, but still generated more in revenue than a utility on the one marketable product that they have to sell.  Government doesn’t have to do well. With more ways to bring high speed Internet into your life developed so recently as to make such efforts end-of-life before full implementation occurs, the high speed of government is maybe not so much ..high speed.

The true owners of TCLP are getting cheated, just like the county was cheated, like everyone who must deal with government participation in what ought to be a market based competitive environment.

And I’ve told you so before.

” In fact, the great risks taken by broadcasters of TV, phone, and cable system providers have sometimes been met with great losses that forced efficiency changes, and platform enhancements to create a more sound and innovative business model. Competition to phone, internet and news services have been seen from cable, phone, television, and private providers. Some of these models have encouraged real technological improvements to serve their customers DESIRES.

But in no case, was any customer forced into an arrangement they did not want. Either by an automatic subscription to a service, or through a fee or charge from taxing authority as unaccountable as a DDA. ”

And maybe it’s not entirely the DDA now, but it happened.

Because it was the plan all along.

You Betcha! (17)Nuh Uh.(1)

  4 comments for “Money Well Spent

  1. Sue Schwartz
    March 23, 2021 at 10:46 am

    TCL&P, a franchise utility, entered into a contract for fiber optics and NEVER knew what the bottom line would be. . and they still don't. Millions of dollars have been spent so far and all this money has not been spent to benefit it's rate payers or tax payers. Out of state contractors are being used, sending this money out of our area. Even the technology needed to run this operation is in TX. Oh, and it doesn't matter that there are six or so private corporations which offer the same service renting lines on TCL&P's equipment. It has always been curious to me, why a government needs to compete with the private sector. At the same time TCL&P was creating this never ending cost boondoggle, a private company wired the entire peninsula for fiber optics. Then, the two largest employers in Grand Traverse, the hospital and school district, have their own fiber optics system which was up and running two years before the TCL&P passed this boondoggle. TCL&P never let on during their public hearings of this valuable information. TCL&P needs to cut their losses on this looser proposition.

    You Betcha! (4)Nuh Uh.(0)
    • Corinthian Scales
      March 23, 2021 at 7:01 pm

      It never fails to giggle me anytime I see/hear someone that thinks any government contract entered is somehow not private business anywhere within said contract that actually does the job. Public sector is little more than paper pushers patting themselves on the back and/or, out in the field layers of mismanagement screwups (but, I repeat myself), hence, why they're NOT in the private sector.

      You Betcha! (3)Nuh Uh.(0)
  2. B. Roubal
    March 24, 2021 at 6:23 am

    The "Rino's" on the TCL&P need to be voted out - removed....and get some fiscal reasonable and exceptional managerial experienced board members to properly conduct TCL& P as a viable service to the residents of Traverse City!!!

    You Betcha! (1)Nuh Uh.(0)
  3. Sue Schwartz
    March 24, 2021 at 2:10 pm

    B. Roubal, there are no RINO's or even a republican on the Traverse City Light and Power (TCL&P) board. It is a city utility franchise and the board members are appointed by the mayor. The start-up money, about $3 Million, was a "loan" by TCL&P to this scam from overcharging? rate payers. In this case, rate payers and tax payers may or may not be the same animal. But grants given to TCL&P is from all taxpayers in the country. So, if you're a rate payer (customer) and a tax payer, and a property owner in TC, you are paying for this boondoggle on at least 4 different fronts. AND IT'S STILL NOT GONNA BE ENOUGH! And yes, cannot agree with you more that the board and the utility CEO needs to be replaced, but for one sensible member who stands alone. Lastly, all the grants they have gotten, they still have not paid back the $3 Million loan. That money belongs to the rate payers.

    You Betcha! (0)Nuh Uh.(0)

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