While our electric rates are shooting through the roof, there are people running around collecting signatures for a referendum question that could make them go up even higher. That’s right, there are people out there who think we can afford to borrow $13.5 billion to buy the two biggest electric companies in our state.
The debt alone will tack on $17,000 to each of our electric bills. Most families and businesses likely could use that much money for other purposes, maybe to pay off some of their own debt rather than being forced to take on more.
The $13.5 billion price tag doesn’t even include the estimated $82 million we’ll need to fork over each year to a different electric company that will be hired to operate the system we’ll have borrowed billions to buy. I’m willing to bet some of my own money that this doesn’t end well.
Scott Lever
South Portland
Send questions/comments to the editors.
