Encourage Engen on eminent domain
“I am all in for the municipalization of our water. The mere fact that an investment group wants to assume control of our drinking water appalls me. Even my local Missoula Organization of Realtors real estate group, whose sole purpose is to promote homeownership, is stumping for rental terms for our drinking water; that shocked me.
It is a a fact: 86 percent of all water systems are owned by their municipalities. Leaving a very vulnerable 14 percent to be scooped up by investor groups. Why let an investor, the Carlyle Group, make us miserable? Does anyone remember what happened to the real estate market when private investors bought mortgages?
In 2011, Citigroup economist Willem Buiter predicted that “water as an asset class will, in my view, become eventually the single most important physical-commodity class, dwarfing oil, copper, agricultural commodities and precious metals.”
Water investor groups are not civic-minded. The groups I read about buy a public water system, raise prices and leave the infrastructure worse. Some people pay $200/month. I’ve not read, “Yeah, they bought our water, its so much better now.” If they do, I can almost guarantee it will be short-lived. Water is a diminishing resource.”
Missoulian 5 November 2014.