What Are We Doing?

Distract to deceive (November 3, 2016)

A good magician only needs to learn one rule, distract to deceive. If that’s the case, then apparently Liberty Utility is very good at magic. Take for instance their latest flier. Measure W could crush Apple Valley with debt reaching $200 million or more. That is not what W does at all! Measure W is a vote by the people of Apple Valley to move ahead with taking back our water from a foreign corporation.

In Liberty’s own ads to potential investors, they show profits rising 14 percent a year. That means our bills continue to climb with no end in sight so rich investors around the world can get richer and our water will get more expensive. That seems like a continuous tax increase without a vote to me. Liberty has already spent about $200,000 to promote Measure V and stop Measure W and this is only for the first reporting period. If history is any indication, the final total could easily double. But they don’t care because they will include all their cost of doing business in the next rate increase to the California Public Utilities Commission.

In Liberty’s ads, they say a vote for V is The only measure that guarantees your right to vote. Of Measure W, they say, Don’t let the politicians take away your right to vote. That’s simply not true! Distract to deceive! Approved in 1996, Proposition 218 gave taxpayers the right to vote on all local taxes, and requires taxpayer approval of property related assessments and fees.

It seems obvious why Liberty playing the distract to deceive game. Now if Liberty really cared more about us and less about their foreign investors, they’d let us vote on their rate increases. But then, that is what Measure W let’s us do.

Rick Piercy, Apple Valley

Source: Daily Press