STOCK MARKET WATCH -- Thursday, 5 June 2014

[Demeter]

4. New Law ‘Facilitates Privatization’ of US Water Systems

http://www.mintpressnews.com/new-law-facilitates-privatization-us-water-systems/191577/


Much of America’s drinking water and wastewater infrastructure needs attention, but critics worry that a new funding bill could be a pipeline to government-subsidized privatization... A major piece of legislation funding the development and improvement of water-related infrastructure passed Congress last week for the first time in nearly a decade, and President Barack Obama is expected to sign the bill soon.

Yet public interest groups warn that a key provision in the law would complicate public investment in drinking water and wastewater systems in big cities and small towns alike. The end result, they say, would be to strengthen privately-managed or -owned water systems while leaving the federal government to take on the risk of these investments — essentially subsidizing water privatization.

“This law will facilitate the privatization of water systems and prioritize funding for privatized systems,” Mary Grant, a researcher for the water program at Food & Water Watch, a watchdog group here, told MintPress News.

“The basic problem is that it will only fund up to 45 percent of project costs, but also stipulates that the rest cannot be made up through the use of tax-exempt bonds. Yet such bonds are the primary way in which local governments fund infrastructure projects, so why would they try to make use of this funding?”

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