Affordability - Manny Teodoro

The Bundle 💻

Important developments in California for utility affordability You probably need all three California’s Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) is working on establishing methods to measure affordability for utility service. The CPUC governs ratemaking for the

Making it Work 💻

A Kansas water utility gets affordability measurement right And lo, there arose from the Kansas City suburbs a mighty measurement Recently we’ve seen progress in affordability measurement, as more water utilities are using better

Taxing questions 💻

Devils (and angels) in the details, Part 5 an ironically regressive luxury tax In early January the California Water Board (SWRCB) published its long-anticipated draft proposal for a statewide low-income water bill assistance program. I’ve

Paper Pushing 💻

Devils (and angels) in the details, Part 4 Nobody wants to talk about this part In early January the California Water Board published its long-anticipated draft proposal for a statewide low-income water bill assistance program.

Life Support 💻

Devils (and angels) in the details, Part 3 In early January the California Water Board released its draft proposal for a statewide low-income water bill assistance program. My last couple posts summarized the proposal

Perverse incentives 💻

Devils (and angels) in the details, Part 2 It's always about the money. In early January the California Water Board released its draft proposal for a statewide low-income water bill assistance program. My last

California’s bold proposal for statewide water bill assistance 💻

Devils (and angels) in the details, Part 1 Governor Newsom (nice haircut in the black jacket, back to the camera) dragged his cabinet down the Central Valley to hear what folks had to say

Water & Sewer Affordability in America 💻

What low-income households pay for essential service in the United States This post reports findings from 2017; an update for 2019 is available here. Over the past 18 months I’ve been working to

Movement on Measurement 💻

Sometimes progress is visible in what you don’t see Earlier this week I had the pleasure of speaking to the annual conference of the California Water Association, an organization of that state’s investor-owned water

Water Pros and Regular Joes 💻

How utility people—and everybody else—think about water issues Where's your head at? Each year the American Water Works Association (AWWA) conducts a survey of its members on the State of the Water Industry (SOTWI).

Inoculation & Therapy 💻

Why rate structures, not assistance programs, offer the most promising path to water affordability yeah this stinks kid, but it beats smallpox When discussions of water and sewer affordability turn to policy solutions, they

Why now | Why us | Why it matters 💻

Remarks from the opening plenary session of the AWWA/WEF Transformative Issues Symposium Earlier this week the American Water Works Association and Water Environment Federation hosted their first-ever Transformative Issues Symposium, a two-day meeting focused on

Answering the Bell 💻

Social science and defying the choice between clean and affordable water Warning: sports cliché coming. Boxing is more popular as a literary metaphor than as a spectator sport these days. Still, I’m a

Zombie Metrics 💻

This guy measures water affordability as (Avg bill ÷ MHI)<2.0% Terrible, horrible, no good, very bad measurement, part 4 My criticism of average bill ÷ Median Household Income (MHI) as a measure of household-level

Water Affordability’s Golden Numbers 💻

Not actually in the book of Numbers Terrible, horrible, no good, very bad measurement, part 3 As my last couple of posts explain, the conventional method of measuring household-level water affordability is to divide

Looking at the Wrong Things 💻

Terrible, horrible, no good, very bad measurement, part 2 As my last post explained, the conventional method of measuring household-level water affordability is to divide a utility’s average residential bill by its community’s Median

Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Measurement 💻

This officer is not trying to measure statewide alcohol sales A feral howl on the conventional method of assessing household water affordability, part 1 Recently a colleague asked me how I first got interested

Cheeseburgers & water bills 💻

Why water utility service can be simultaneously underpriced and unaffordable Analysis of water and sewer affordability implies a concern that the prices of these critical services might be too high. At the same time,

Tax Collectors and Other Sinners 💻

What California’s SB-623 reveals about water affordability and the politics of public finance Who shall pay? is the perennially vexing refrain for would-be providers of public goods. Everyone likes nice things; no one likes

Water & Fire 💻

The case for rate-funded water affordability Warning: this post contains hardcore wonkery. One of the most trenchant questions that emerged during the recent California State Water Resources Control Board affordability symposium (pursuant to California

Water affordability as poetry and prose 💻

Can declaring a human right to water help address affordability? Something extraordinary is unfolding in California. In 2012, to great fanfare, California governor Jerry Brown signed into law Assembly Bill 685, which amended the