N.C. Man Sees $99.9 Million Service Fee on His Local Water Bill
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Also in our State and Local Daily Digest: New ‘Buy American Steel’ law in Texas worries mayors on Canadian trade trip; N.J. project sees largest sale of unrated muni bonds so far in 2017; and will California leaders replumb the state?
CUSTOMER SERVICE | A North Carolina man was assured by his local water utility that he didn’t owe $100,000,188.92 on his most recent water bill. That billing trouble involved a $99,999,999 service fee tacked onto his bill of $189.92, prompting a tweet where he wondered if he could “pay in installments.” Later, the man reported that the Orange Water and Sewer Authority followed up with him to confirm that the really high bill was indeed a mistake with a vendor that manages billing services. The errant service fee was only listed in an email version of the bill, not that actual bill. It’s unclear how many OWSA customers may have received a similar email error.
[@kjhealy; The News & Observer]
ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT | Two North Texas mayors, Dallas Mayor Mike Rawlings and Fort Worth Mayor Betsy Price are speaking out against a “Buy American” iron and steel measure that was signed by Gov. Greg Abbott on Friday, set to go into effect Sept. 1. Rawlings and Price are on a trade mission in Toronto and Montreal this week, and both mayors have expressed concern over how the law might impact Texas-Canada trade. [The Texas Tribune]
WATER INFRASTRUCTURE | California’s most powerful water agencies are hoping to have a resolution by September on whether to proceed with Gov. Jerry Brown’s $15.5 billion proposal to replumb the way water destined for the Bay Area, Southern California and San Joaquin Valley farms moves through the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta. The long-discussed Delta tunnels project, which has been criticized by some Northern California leaders as a “water grab” and some attorneys in the Delta area have promised litigation to stop it should it go forward. [The Sacramento Bee]
PUBLIC FINANCE | Goldman Sachs Group Inc. on Wednesday planned to price $1.1 billion of municipal bonds for a long-delayed shopping and entertainment complex, known as “The American Dream,” located in New Jersey’s Meadowlands, about 10 miles west of New York City. The deal marks the largest sale of unrated municipal bonds this year. Borrowers sometimes pass up credit ratings for risky projects to avoid getting their debt labeled as junk. The 2.9 million square-foot complex is scheduled to open in 2019, about 15 years after earlier developers broke ground. [Bloomberg]
TRANSPORTATION | Local officials in Portland, Oregon, have been supportive of a plan to expand Interstate 5 through the city’s Rose Quarter at the same time as they’re trying to burnish their environmental credentials. Those are seemingly inconsistent positions, but with transportation planning, the situation is a bit more nuanced. Capacity on I-5 isn’t being increased, but an auxiliary lane is being added to allow stalled cars to safely leave the travel lanes at a current chokepoint. “The purpose is to address the current bottleneck rather than to add capacity. I believe this is not inconsistent with our climate action plan goals," Commissioner Amanda Fritz said. A new overpass that’s planned will improve conditions for bicyclists and pedestrians on city streets. [Willamette Week]
The Denver Regional Transit District has resumed testing commuter trains on the yet-to-open 11-mile G-Line that will connect Denver Union Station with the city’s western suburbs of Arvada and Wheat Ridge. After months of delays due to mechanical problems on RTD’s two other new commuter rail lines involving problems with the proper timing of gates coming down on rail crossings. Federal authorities have only allowed RTD’s A and B commuter rail lines have to operate if each crossing is staffed with flag crews. [The Denver Post]
CITY HALLS | Jackson, Wyoming Mayor Pete Muldoon has stirred controversy in the deeply Republican state by removing the photographs of President Trump and Vice President Pence from his community’s town hall. The mayor said last week that he replaced the portraits with one of 19th-century Shoshone Chief Washakie because he disapproved of Trump’s leadership. Muldoon has since altered his story a bit, saying he’s against honoring any partisan, national political figures because it can be divisive. “There was a picture of Obama at Town Hall, and it was put up before I was elected mayor,” the mayor wrote in an email sent to supporters. “I don’t believe it should have been displayed either.” Teton County, where Jackson is located, is the only county in Wyoming that Trump lost in last year’s election. [Casper Star-Tribune]
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