this post was submitted on 25 Aug 2023
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Maine
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You totally skipped over the 260MM capex where they invested in infrastructure - capex that would otherwise have to come from citizens. The reason the infrastructure is old is that it is expensive as fuck to renew it, and that doesn't make financial sense for a utility so they need investment capital to do it.
Citizens controlling the company does not mean workers will work for free. I find it strange people can be like "wages need to go up" and also think "let's cap the wages of linemen."
The math just isn't there for it without something like an ongoing investment fund set up years in advance, prepared to shoulder the investment burden. I'm all for that, but that requires diverting existing funds or raising taxes, both of which have their own challenges
The Capex did come from the citizens in either circumstance. The objective is to eliminate massive administrative costs associated with business owner dividends. That's the part that is currently paid for by the citizens of Maine.
The CapEx came from a foreign holding company, so in no way did it come from the citizens.
I mean long term it all comes from the citizens seeing how that's the sole source of income for the business.
The business isn't profitable enough to do it's own upgrades, so no, again, not citizens.
So to be clear it is currently a business operating at a loss?
Not operating at a loss and having hundreds of millions to spend are two very different things