FM: Burley Owen To: Jim Gerlt As one of your constituents, I want to ask you to do two things for me and the other people in your district today at the City Council meeting. I. Vote against any increase in property taxes. The amount of increased revenue is so small such a vote will be mostly symbolic anyway. Find some place to cut an equal amount out of the budget. I can think of a number of places the budget could be cut by this amount. I cannot understand why you cannot see them. LEDA and Market Lubbock would be a place to start. But you seem to be more concerned or fearful about upsetting the wealthy and influential people in Lubbock than representing the average taxpayer. II. I hope you will continue to support taking the money out of the LP&L budget for Smart Meters. I have spent hundreds of hours researching this subject and have concluded that there are health hazards involved as well as the fact that many of the places that have installed Smart Meters have experienced substantial increases in utility bills. Some of those reasons for increased utility rates are: 1. At least two manufacturers of Smart Meters promote their use by saying, “They capture minute uses of electricity that mechanical meters do not capture.” In other words, they increase revenue. 2. They average the low and high amounts of electricity together with the result showing a higher amount of usage resulting in higher revenue for the utility. 3. The Elster representative yesterday at the LP&L when ask about why electrical rates may increase with the installation of Smart Meters made this reply. The mechanical meters may be so old and worn that the wheel that you see turning may not be turning as fast as it should. The result is that the old mechanical meters may not be recording as much usage as they should. When you install Smart Meters the bill may increase because you are getting a more accurate reading on the usage. I do not buy that story. 4. The sale rep from Elster also said yesterday that the initial bills on the Smart Meter may be higher because the final reading on the old mechanical meter was read wrong showing a lower than actual usage. So when the Smart Meter is put in that utility bill will be higher. If you believe that story, I have some fine forest land in Lubbock county that I would like to sell you. 5. These Smart Meters have what could be considered a small computer in them that runs all the time thus consuming electricity all the time even when not transmitting signals. 6. The most important factor for increased bills is that these Smart Meters allow structured or tiered usage rates. Utility companies use these tiered rates to discourage usage during peak periods.But there is reason to believe that they also like these tiered rates to increase revenue. The more you use at peak demand periods, the more you pay. For example the City Council has had no reservation about tiering the water rates with the end result being increased revenue for the city. Do you think the City Council and the EUB Board can resist using the tiered rates to increase revenue? There are hundreds of cities that have experienced increased utility bills when Smart Meters are installed. Somewhere along the line I gave you a brochure that showed in the first year of installation of Smart Meters in an area serviced by Pacific Gas and Electric, bills went up an average of 50%. I recently read an article about Bakersfield, Ca., that there was such an out cry about increased utility bills from Smart Meters that the utility was forced to roll back rates. If you want another fire storm over high utility bills like we just saw in July just install Smart Meters. So again, I am asking you not to increase the property tax rate. I am also asking you not to allow money in LP&P’s budget to purchase even what George Carpenter calls dumb Smart Meters. Keep in mind that the authorization of money for Smart Meters will also increase the City’s debt. If financed with revenue bonds, it has to increase utility bills to pay for these Smart Meters.
Posted on: Tue, 10 Sep 2013 13:25:28 +0000
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