Buffalo News articles on Casino and General Water Pricing in Area.

[concernedwnyer]

Did anyone read the article “Seneca ‘fronts’ pay off for few”, The Buffalo News, front page. Sunday April 23, 2006

The Seneca folks calling the casino shots are not having a very good week.

Same Buffalo News front page. “Water-rich but paying more.”
We do tend to make the high list on many things don’t we?

As always go to www.BuffaloNews.com for the complete story.

[jennifer7]

That's funny :

"ECWA is paying Getz to Work at Home for $90,000+ "

[GeorgeB]

I thought the most telling part of the entire article was this:

The governor, he points out, earns $95,000 a year - less than Buffalo's mayor, the county executive, or the official secretary of the Erie County Water Authority or any of its other top staff.

Let me repeat for effect (emphasis added):

The governor (...) earns $95,000 a year (...) less that the official secretary of the ECWA

Is it just me or does anyone else feel like we're being taken for a ride ... again?

[atotaltotalfan2001]

I thought the most telling part of the entire article was this:



Let me repeat for effect (emphasis added):

The governor (...) earns $95,000 a year (...) less that the official secretary of the ECWA

Is it just me or does anyone else feel like we're being taken for a ride ... again?

Reminded me of the many reasons people leave and find better, or at least affordable, lives elsewhere.

[Edisonic]

Buffalo claims it spends $1 of every $7 in expenses on electricity (which doesn't seem that much to me, but...) - it looks as if they should restore the giant steam engines at the Colonel Ward Station and save same money !

Besides, immense operating steam engines would be another tourist attraction. Really.

[atotaltotalfan2001]

Something The News article doesn't point out is that WE, as federal taxpayers, subsidize a lot of the water that is used in the West. A ton of federal money has gone into building water systems for areas that would be nothing but desert otherwise.

[biker]

I don't think so, TTF.

All the big dams that trap up the Colorado are also electricity generating stations.

Let's do a little noodling together, shall we TTF.

Let's see, physical plant built with 1950s dollars.

Electricity sold at 2006 rates jacked up by Persian terrorists.

Methinks they make big bucks.

How 'bout you.

(Say, if anyone knows of a Colorado hydro museum like the Power Project next to Niagara University, let me know. I'd go there in a heartbeat.)

[atotaltotalfan2001]

I meant construction of the infrastructure. Muy, muy expensive, and paid for largely with federal dollars.

P.S. I won't mention to the missus that you asked me to noddle with you!

[biker]

I think they make enough off theelectricity to cover any infrastructure, superstructure or super dooper you could dream of.

[atotaltotalfan2001]

I think they make enough off theelectricity to cover any infrastructure, superstructure or super dooper you could dream of.

This is an example of what I mean when I talk about US subsidizing water in the West through tax dollars:

Feds, State Work Out CAP Cost Settlement

Other Issues Await Settlement Before Final Approval

In 1993, the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation declared the Central Arizona Project substantially complete. Seven years later, a period of time marked by dispute and litigation, the state of Arizona and the federal government have finally agreed on the amount the state owes as reimbursable costs of building the $4.7 billion, 336-mile-long canal.

The settlement fixes Central Arizona Water Conservation District’s repayment obligation at $1.65 billion, a significant decrease from the $2.3 billion the federal government initially sought. Further, the state will receive credit for money paid since the project was completed in 1993. The agreement also allows CAWCD to retain the exclusive right to market excess water; i.e., CAP water not under contract or under contract but unused by a customer. The agreement is expected to save Arizona $700 million, over the 50-year payback schedule.

http://ag.arizona.edu/AZWATER/awr/mar00/feature1.htm

[biker]

TTF-The headline should read; In a complete break with decades of established practice, a state is actually paying the Federal government back some dough for an infrastructure project."

The story could continue that the other 49 governors are grumbling that this damn well better not set a precedent. "Gubernatorial candidate Eliot Spitzer is considering a lawsuit (a tactic that has brought dozens of Fortune 500 CEOs to their flabby knees) in order to preclude the Federal govt from applying the same reimbursement theory to any or all of New York's wasteful spending supported with Federal matching grants."

Ok, maybe the headline is a little long.

[biker]

Actually, I'm glad you did a post on the CAP. I rode over it a few times three weeks ago. It's actually pretty underwhelming. A concrete ditch about forty feet wide. And that cost $2.3 billion??!!!

I guess a billion don't buy near as much as it used to.

From the article, it sounds like it's about as long as the original Erie Canal. We could have sent a few hundred Irish laborers out there. With the picks and shovels they used to make our Erie Canal, they'd have done it for about 90% less.

Oops, forget that. Citymouse would organize them. In return for five years of honest labor, he'd want "living wage" guaranteed jobs for the next 30 years and a defined benefit pension plan.

[biker]

(Gotta split the posts up; using DSL here. Shuts off after five minutes of "inactivity").

What I'm really interested in is, where did AZ get the water to fill the CAP? My understanding is, is that every drop of Colorado River water was "owned" contractually by the 1880s.

I'm gonna look at that document and its website. But I'm suspicious, TTF. Is this group one of your socialist, anti-growth fellow traveller groups? I mean, I wouldn't want my pristine raging capitalist thought structure to get infected.

(BTW-By your silence, I know you fully---if sadly---accepted my point that electricity sales from the multiple Colorado river dams make gobs of profits.)

[Boost Buffalo]

I don't think so, TTF.

All the big dams that trap up the Colorado are also electricity generating stations.

Let's do a little noodling together, shall we TTF.

Let's see, physical plant built with 1950s dollars.

Electricity sold at 2006 rates jacked up by Persian terrorists.

Methinks they make big bucks.

How 'bout you.

then what do you suppose? its the same down there as it is here, the money trail disintegrates?

Nobody knows where the net proceeds go from the Niagara project. How about down there?

and I wonder if they charge different electric rates for the different communities off the Colorado, like they do here.

[biker]

Come on Boost. You're a bright cookie.

The profits from the NYPA flow into the NYS general coffers. Or those that don't get diverted to high profile, bedrock projects like the Erie Canal.

I imagine the Western electric sales benefit the same inept state governments and vital public projects.