The most charitable spin you can put on Chuckles’ hostile GRU takeover bill is that he thinks his GNV constituents are feckless children who simply cannot be trusted to eat their vegetables.
If they could be trusted, they would have voted to hand GRU over to an appointed board when the Legislature gave them the opportunity to do so. Since GNV feckless voters declined, Chuckles must now play the role of wise but stern father figure and shove a board of Great DeSanitizer hand puppets down GNV’s throat by legislative fiat.
For our own good of course.
The next most charitable interpretation of Chuckles’ motives is that he simply hates GNV and will do anything he can to punish our blue city.
But maybe there is another motive. Maybe he’s not acting on behalf of his constituents at all.
Possibly he’s hauling someone else’s water.
Which brings me to Opportunity For All Floridians.
It is an admittedly left-leaning public interest group that regularly issues position papers on important issues of the day. Like the Legislature’s war on unions, or saving the sea turtles, or access to health care and so on.
One of its recent position papers attempts to get at the real motive behind the Legislature’s hostile takeover of GRU.
It you haven’t read it you really should. It’s an eye-opener.
Basically, the group’s contention is that one of Florida’s largest and most influential investor owned utilities – Florida Power & Light – learned some hard lessons from an unsuccessful 2019 bid to purchase JEA, Jacksonville’s municipal utility.
According to Opportunity:
“In 2019, FPL’s attempted acquisition of JEA failed in large part because privatization became so controversial and unpopular that locally elected city council members turned against it. So, this time, utility industry allies in the Florida Legislature are working, behind closed doors, on legislation that would strip decisions about the future of GRU away from locally elected city commissioners in Gainesville and give that power entirely to political appointees of Gov. Ron DeSantis – a Republican who has worked very closely with Florida Power & Light throughout his tenure in office.”
“Though the supporters are trying to hide the ball, this GRU legislation is a privatization plot.”
In effect, the GRU hostile takeover bill is a playbook that, if successful, will inevitably lead to the privatization of other municipally owned utilities in Florida.
“An investor owned utility is always looking to buy assets. That’s how they grow,” Laura Wagner, executive director of Opportunity told me. “if they can make a case that a municipal utility is being mismanaged, that they can lower rates, it sets the groundwork for a purchase. We saw that play out with JEA.”
Check out the playbook.
Step 1: remove control from local voters.
Step 2: Make it look like GRU is in a financial mess (it isn’t, not even close).
Step 3: Sell GRU to an investor owned utility which will ultimately raise rates in order to maximize profits.
“The number one reason we support keeping GRU as a municipal utility is because the dollars stay local instead of the other option, where the dollars are driven to investors,” says Wagner.”
I dunno. Maybe Chuckles really does think GNV voters are children who need a stern hand if they are to eat their vegetables.
Or maybe he just hates GNV.
Or maybe, just maybe, he’s carrying someone else’s water.
FreeGNV 