Chris Gulick: Subsidizing wealthy water users not what MID founders intended
It’s funny. I just reread “The Greening of Paradise Valley (www.mid.org/about/history/default.html). It tells of a group led by the owner of the local bank, founding MID to provide water to local farmers. For the first 35 years they realized the fruits of their labors, as they should.
They had streets named after them. Their kids went to college and life was good.
In 1923 MID began electrical service and by 1954 all the debts incurred by MID for construction were paid in full, almost entirely by electrical revenue.
You might think MID would share the wealth with the citizens who voted to form MID. After all, MID’s success was built by using pubic trust water. But not so fast, said the good old boys who inherited MID form the McHenrys, Carvers etc.. This cash cow had plenty of life left in her.
So for the past 61 years the rich have gotten richer and the common citizens of Modesto continued to take one for the team.
How many more years should the citizens of Modesto be forced to subsidize those who need it the least? When is enough, enough?
Chris Gulick, Rio Vista
This story was originally published January 29, 2015 at 4:03 PM with the headline "Chris Gulick: Subsidizing wealthy water users not what MID founders intended."