Milford chronicle., 1958-02-28
SAME SAUCE FOR ALL


with the future of the Tennessee Valley Au-
thority are now in the discussion stage. One
would permit IVA to finance future expan-
sion by issuing revenue bonds without Con-
gressional approval. Then IVA would be-
come an almost completely autonomous agen-
cy, and a precedent would be set whereby
state socialism wearing corporate clothing
could be extended on limitless scale.
Another proposal however, is in an op-
posite category. 1t is designed to strengthen,
not weaken. Congressional control over IVA.
1t is designed also to put IVA on self-sup-
porting, taxpaying business basis. The Au-
thority would pay interest on the So billion
of taxpayers money it has received. 1t would
repay this investment over 40-year period.
1t would be subject to federal, state and other
taxes apply to commercial undertakings. And
future financing would constitute no burden
on federal or state taxpayers.
Speaking editorially, the Chicago Tribune
said that IVA should be able to meet these
requirements. Then it added: Resistance,
however, may be expected to come from two
interested groups. The first is the IVA bur-
eaucracy and its allies among socialist mind
ed advocates of federal power. The other is
favored IVA consumers who enjoy artificial
ly low rates for electric power at the expense
of taxpayers throughout the country"
Nothing can be done about that first
per cent socialized federal power monopoly.
But one can't help but believe that there must
be many people in the IVA service region
who believe in paying their own bills, in.
stead of having the rest of us pay part of
them. After all, if it is proper to subsidize
IVA electric customers, it would be equally
proper to subsidize the customers of stores
and all other places of business throughout
the country. What's sauce for the goose
should be sauce for the gander.
SSeS
NO CAUSE FOR COMPLAINT
Most of us complain when the prices of
things in common use go up. That's simply
human nature. And most of us give small
thought to the factors which make price in
creases inevitable.
Oil is a good example.
Over a recently-ended 10 year period, all
of the major operating costs borne by the
oil industry scared. Production wages went
up 62 per cent; oil field machinery prices AT
per cent finished steel prices 81 per cent;
and pipe line prices "a per cent.
Yet in that same period, the price of gas
oine to the motorist rose by only 21 per cent.
This price increase, in other words, was much
less than the increases in the industry's basic
costs of carrying on the business. Such fac
tors as competition and greater operating eff
ficiency keep the price of gas and the other
oil products to the lowest feasible level.
That level, as we all know, is sufficient to
give the concerns which produce and process
and sell oil profit. If it didn't, this country
would face bleak future. By 1866, say the
forecasters, the oil industry must be able
to increase its output of products by SO per
cent-nearly two-thirds. That means there
must be billions of new investment in facli-
ties of every kind. And only a financially
healthy industry is capable of carrying out
such obligations.
SOME CONTRAST
The biggest real estate taxpayer in the
Cleveland Northeast Ohio area will write
check for S7,500,00 this year-and most of
it (about II per cent? will go to schools This
means the school districts will get some $5,-
$50 000-enough to build two new senior
high school buildings in the area involved.
The taxpayer in question is an electric
utility-the Cleveland Electric Illuminating
Company Its service area covers 1,700
square miles, and embraces four counties
and part of fifth.
What makes this piece of news important
is that it is typical In every part of the
country the buSineSS-managed utilities are
among the largest and most dependable tax
payers. And their payments are not confined
to real estate taxes by any means. Every
unit of government, federal, state and local,
is the beneficiary of their operations. It's an
actual fact that, on the average, about % per
cent of all the revenue power and light COM
pany takes it goes to meet the tax bill.
Contrast this with publicly-owned, social
lied power. Usually it pays no taxes at all.
The systems commonly run at loss, which
means the general taxpayers have to make up
the deficit. Decisions are frequently made on
a political basis, with all the waste and in
efficiency that may involve.
And that is some contrast