Is the epic struggle the South San Joaquin Irrigation District has undertaken to replace PG&E as the retail power supplier for Manteca, Ripon, and Escalon worth it?

The answer is on your street.

A move 25 years ago by the Manteca City Council has avoided municipal costs of at least $140,000 a year.

PG&E owned 1,674 of Manteca’s 2,685 street lights in 1999.

 The California Public Utilities Commission allowed PG&E to charge $65 a year for electricity and the maintenance for those 1,674 street lights.

Research showed that if Manteca bought the street lights under PG&E control and then contracted the maintenance out, it would cost $42 annually per light including electricity.

Manteca was required to pay the $65 even if the street lights PG&E was paid to maintain were out for weeks or months at a time.

PG&E initially put the cost of buying the street lights at $1.3 million.

The CPUC ultimately said the fair market value was $483,180.

But here’s where it gets interesting. Manteca homeowners had already paid for the 1,674 street lights and infrastructure needed to power them. The cost was collapsed into the price of new homes.

That means PG&E — which claimed the street lights in question were worth three times their actual value — still got paid for something that they never paid for in the first place.

That is how PG&E rolls with their lapdogs at the CPUC.

In the 1990s, the city started requiring developers to dedicate street lights to the city and not PG&E.

In doing so, the city started cutting their ongoing costs as well as reducing the cost to developers who in turn passed the savings onto home buyers.

The CPUC requires developers to cover potential PG&E taxes on improvements they make such as street lights and underground wiring, transformer boxes and such needed to serve the subdivisions they build.

The charge is just under 35 percent of the cost of the improvements.

The goal was to keep PG&E whole against corporate taxes.

However, it has become a big profit center for PG&E.

Developers typically pay more than PG&E is required to pay in taxes. That excess money is never returned to developers, as the CPUC allows the utility to pocket it.

 Such a requirement would not exist if a public agency was the retail power provider, such as South San Joaquin Irrigation District in Manteca, Ripon, and Escalon.

It gets worse.

Due to tax breaks granted by Congress, PG&E has earned billions without ever paying a cent in federal taxes during a 10-year stretch ending in 2017.

In those years, the 35 percent tax developers paid that was then collapsed into the sale price of a home was 100 percent profit for PG&E

Not only did Manteca residents end up spending less money on street lights in terms of electricity and maintenance when they “bought out” PG&E but they also got better service.

That’s exactly what will happen when SSJID takes over retail power delivery in Manteca, Ripon, and Escalon. Data of how other non-profit power providers such as Modesto Irrigation District and Sacramento Municipal Utility District charge and their reliability of service backs that up,

It wasn’t uncommon for PG&E to take a month to replace a burned out street light.

The current city contractor typically responds within several days or less once they are contacted by the city.

So the city reduced ongoing costs 35.3 percent, obtained the infrastructure at a fair market price that was 62.8 percent lower than what PG&E wanted, and was able to modernize and drastically improve service at the same time.

It mirrors everything that SSJID contends it can do with the added caveat the $15 million in annual savings for households, businesses, government agencies, and farmers in Manteca, Ripon, and Escalon.

 SSJID’s exhaustive studies — verified already by an independent consultant that has done work for PG&E — show that retail power costs will fall by at least 15 percent across the board. That, by the way, is for starters. They are likely to eventually drop farther.

Let’s go back to the street lights for a second.

Manteca residents have now avoided paying $3.5 million because city leaders did what SSJID is doing — analyzing costs, PG&E’s performance, and price gouging.

That represents a net savings in tax expenditures of $38.88 for each of Manteca’s current 90,000 residents over 25 years.

Had the city not made the move it did in 1999, the equivalent funding of one police officer would have been lost on an annual basis simply so PG&E’s brass could buy corporate jets and pocket $1 million bonuses even when the utility teetered on the edge of bankruptcy.

And the savings would have been significantly higher today if PG&E still owned the streetlights. That’s because PG&E’s rate increases have been at levels double and triple inflation.

The effort of SSJID to enter the retail power business has been at least 20- years in the making.

SSJID is now two steps away from reaching its goal.

A “right to take” hearing is set for 2025 in San Joaquin County Superior Court.

It will decide whether SSJID passes the legal litmus test to exercise its right ton use eminent domain to force the sale of PG&E infrastructure within its service area as provided for in the California Constitution.

The final step is a court case to set the price.

 So will the 20-year odyssey SSJID has undertaken to reduce this community’s power costs by at least 15 percent be worth the effort?

Look at it this way. If SSJID was your power provider now, the last rate hike that was a record 13 percent would never have occurred.

That is because all of the projects would not have been needed.

And that savings — would have been on top of the 15 percent initial savings SSJID can deliver the day they become the local retail power provider.

The savings will grow as future rate increases the SSJID will incur would be significantly cheaper than PG&E’s based on historic trends for-profit versus non-profit utilities. That means the gap between what SSJID customers pay and PG&E’s remaining 15.9 million customers pay will keep growing.

SSJID has the legal authority, the capability, and the financial wherewithal to be retail power providers.

The SSJID plan to slash rates 15 percent translates into you and your neighbors having a combined $15 million more left in their collective pockets each year.

The only people that think a community saving that kind of money isn’t  good are those in the executive suites on Lakeshore Drive in Oakland.

 This column is the opinion of editor, Dennis Wyatt, and does not necessarily represent the opinions of The Bulletin or 209 Multimedia. He can be reached at dwyatt@mantecabulletin.com

Is the epic struggle the South San Joaquin Irrigation District has undertaken to replace PG&E as the retail power supplier for Manteca, Ripon, and Escalon worth it?

The answer is on your street.

A move 25 years ago by the Manteca City Council has avoided municipal costs of at least $140,000 a year.

PG&E owned 1,674 of Manteca’s 2,685 street lights in 1999.

 The California Public Utilities Commission allowed PG&E to charge $65 a year for electricity and the maintenance for those 1,674 street lights.

Research showed that if Manteca bought the street lights under PG&E control and then contracted the maintenance out, it would cost $42 annually per light including electricity.

Manteca was required to pay the $65 even if the street lights PG&E was paid to maintain were out for weeks or months at a time.

PG&E initially put the cost of buying the street lights at $1.3 million.

The CPUC ultimately said the fair market value was $483,180.

But here’s where it gets interesting. Manteca homeowners had already paid for the 1,674 street lights and infrastructure needed to power them. The cost was collapsed into the price of new homes.

That means PG&E — which claimed the street lights in question were worth three times their actual value — still got paid for something that they never paid for in the first place.

That is how PG&E rolls with their lapdogs at the CPUC.

In the 1990s, the city started requiring developers to dedicate street lights to the city and not PG&E.

In doing so, the city started cutting their ongoing costs as well as reducing the cost to developers who in turn passed the savings onto home buyers.

The CPUC requires developers to cover potential PG&E taxes on improvements they make such as street lights and underground wiring, transformer boxes and such needed to serve the subdivisions they build.

The charge is just under 35 percent of the cost of the improvements.

The goal was to keep PG&E whole against corporate taxes.

However, it has become a big profit center for PG&E.

Developers typically pay more than PG&E is required to pay in taxes. That excess money is never returned to developers, as the CPUC allows the utility to pocket it.

 Such a requirement would not exist if a public agency was the retail power provider, such as South San Joaquin Irrigation District in Manteca, Ripon, and Escalon.

It gets worse.

Due to tax breaks granted by Congress, PG&E has earned billions without ever paying a cent in federal taxes during a 10-year stretch ending in 2017.

In those years, the 35 percent tax developers paid that was then collapsed into the sale price of a home was 100 percent profit for PG&E

Not only did Manteca residents end up spending less money on street lights in terms of electricity and maintenance when they “bought out” PG&E but they also got better service.

That’s exactly what will happen when SSJID takes over retail power delivery in Manteca, Ripon, and Escalon. Data of how other non-profit power providers such as Modesto Irrigation District and Sacramento Municipal Utility District charge and their reliability of service backs that up,

It wasn’t uncommon for PG&E to take a month to replace a burned out street light.

The current city contractor typically responds within several days or less once they are contacted by the city.

So the city reduced ongoing costs 35.3 percent, obtained the infrastructure at a fair market price that was 62.8 percent lower than what PG&E wanted, and was able to modernize and drastically improve service at the same time.

It mirrors everything that SSJID contends it can do with the added caveat the $15 million in annual savings for households, businesses, government agencies, and farmers in Manteca, Ripon, and Escalon.

 SSJID’s exhaustive studies — verified already by an independent consultant that has done work for PG&E — show that retail power costs will fall by at least 15 percent across the board. That, by the way, is for starters. They are likely to eventually drop farther.

Let’s go back to the street lights for a second.

Manteca residents have now avoided paying $3.5 million because city leaders did what SSJID is doing — analyzing costs, PG&E’s performance, and price gouging.

That represents a net savings in tax expenditures of $38.88 for each of Manteca’s current 90,000 residents over 25 years.

Had the city not made the move it did in 1999, the equivalent funding of one police officer would have been lost on an annual basis simply so PG&E’s brass could buy corporate jets and pocket $1 million bonuses even when the utility teetered on the edge of bankruptcy.

And the savings would have been significantly higher today if PG&E still owned the streetlights. That’s because PG&E’s rate increases have been at levels double and triple inflation.

The effort of SSJID to enter the retail power business has been at least 20- years in the making.

SSJID is now two steps away from reaching its goal.

A “right to take” hearing is set for 2025 in San Joaquin County Superior Court.

It will decide whether SSJID passes the legal litmus test to exercise its right ton use eminent domain to force the sale of PG&E infrastructure within its service area as provided for in the California Constitution.

The final step is a court case to set the price.

 So will the 20-year odyssey SSJID has undertaken to reduce this community’s power costs by at least 15 percent be worth the effort?

Look at it this way. If SSJID was your power provider now, the last rate hike that was a record 13 percent would never have occurred.

That is because all of the projects would not have been needed.

And that savings — would have been on top of the 15 percent initial savings SSJID can deliver the day they become the local retail power provider.

The savings will grow as future rate increases the SSJID will incur would be significantly cheaper than PG&E’s based on historic trends for-profit versus non-profit utilities. That means the gap between what SSJID customers pay and PG&E’s remaining 15.9 million customers pay will keep growing.

SSJID has the legal authority, the capability, and the financial wherewithal to be retail power providers.

The SSJID plan to slash rates 15 percent translates into you and your neighbors having a combined $15 million more left in their collective pockets each year.

The only people that think a community saving that kind of money isn’t  good are those in the executive suites on Lakeshore Drive in Oakland.

 This column is the opinion of editor, Dennis Wyatt, and does not necessarily represent the opinions of The Bulletin or 209 Multimedia. He can be reached at dwyatt@mantecabulletin.com