WHERE MUNICIPAL OWNERSHIP PAYS DIVIDENDS
Where Municipal Ownership Pays Dividends ABOUT SO years ago Tacoma, Washington, was induced to purchase a light and water plant from private interests that had lost faith in the city. There was...
...The distribution is at 4,000 volts...
...It costs the average electric home about $155 a year for light, heat and cooking electricity...
...No expensive underground system is maintained...
...There was none of the political agitation that generally precedes municipal ownership for the owners were unloading a lemon...
...These utilities have now grown into successful enterprises...
...The finances of the electric system are in fine shape...
...The same plant serves every house in a block and not every other one as is the casa in some municipal enterprises...
...Rates have always been kept high enough to pay for all ordinary extensions out of the earnings, so that this money has earned compound interest...
...This heating rate is possible because the climate is mild and each customer's demand is small...
...Then, too, the commercial use stops about the time of day that the greatest use of residence heaters begins...
...Power is generated with water in a plant constructed at low cost with money borrowed as five per cent...
...There is a diversity of use so that only about 50 per cent of the heaters are used at once...
...All distribution wires are overhead, largely in alleys...
...Tacoma supplies its people with light at five cents, cooking current at one cent and heating current at one-half cent a kilowatt hour...
...A report shows a surplus of $3,536 341.37, of which $660,707.27 was added in 1921...
...The rate was established to use up the surplus of a water-power plant...
...These are the rates for the past seven years with no increase during the war...
...This diversity is caused by the different habits of the people, people being away, and auxiliary use...
...For those cities who want to know how Tacoma rates are possible, the following reasons may be assigned: The plant has been publicly owned for 30 years and during that time has enjoyed a monopoly...
Vol. 14 • December 1922 • No. 12
