To make case against PSC rate hike, just add logic
By HOWARD TROXLER
Published October 1, 2003
I want you to consider doing something.
Not only that, but I want you to consider doing it the hard way.
Do you remember that this past spring, your state Legislature voted to jack up your local telephone bill? Local rates will go up 30 to 90 percent, depending on location.
Well, the final action has to be taken by the outfit that regulates utilities in Florida, the Public Service Commission, or PSC.
It so happens that this Friday, the PSC will hold a public hearing in downtown Tampa. The stated purpose is to hear from you, the public.
I want you to go.
Seriously. Do it.
The hearing will be at 1 p.m. on the 26th floor of the Hillsborough County Center, at 601 E Kennedy Blvd. (Another hearing in St. Petersburg will be held sometime in the future.)
You might be saying:
"That's ridiculous! If they really want to hear from the public, how come they're holding a 1 p.m. public hearing on a weekday?"
The answer is that, well, at least a couple of them don't really want to hear from you at all. They're going through the motions.
I know that it will be hard enough for you to get there. It's the middle of a weekday, in a crowded downtown with tough parking.
But still, that's not the hardest part.
Here's the hardest part:
You can't complain about having to pay more.
You heard right.
Don't go in there just to say, "I don't want a higher phone bill."
That's what they WANT you to say.
They want you to grumble and gripe about having to pay more money. Then they can say to each other:
"These citizens are ignorant of the real, technical issues involved! All they care about is a couple of lousy bucks. We knew all along that these public hearings were a waste."
What, then, should you talk about?
The answer is that you should take the fight onto their turf. You should fight them with their own words.
They are supposed to be making this decision based on certain grounds spelled out in the law. It would be great if the citizens of Florida stood up and pointed out that those grounds simply have not been proven.
Here are some key points:
There will be no overall financial benefit to consumers. The law states that customers must benefit from a rate hike. It ought to take more than a mere breezy declaration from the phone companies to prove that's the case.
Many customers actually will be hurt. The only time a customer breaks even under this rate hike is if he or she makes a lot of in-state, long-distance calls using a home telephone. Those who use cell phones, those who don't make long-distance calls, or those who mostly call out of state get the shaft.
Local service is not a money-loser. This is the big lie behind the entire rate hike. Phone companies gripe about what a terrible, unprofitable burden residential customers are - but they aren't including all the money that they make off those customers from caller ID, call-waiting or anything else.
The promise of lower, in-state long-distance rates is a pig in a poke. Nothing in the law prevents in-state long-distance companies from giving, say, 99 percent of the rate break to business customers, while leaving residential customers holding the bag.
The rate hike will not increase local competition. This is another big claim behind this law. Yet there ought to be some factual basis for taking such a step - phone companies have been promising more residential "competition" ever since the mid 1990s, each time they got a new sweetheart deal from the state.
Lastly, you might throw this at them:
The PSC doesn't have to do this. Every single politician who got this law passed, from Gov. Jeb Bush on down, swore up and down that it would not require the PSC to raise rates. The PSC supposedly has discretion.
If you go on Friday, and say these things, will the PSC listen to you?
I have to be honest - maybe not.
But at least the public record will reflect that the people of Florida are not the ignorant suckers that the Legislature, the telephone industry and the PSC itself take them for.
