Speaking of Veolia winning its high bid for garbage collection, here’s a clue to how much more its rates may go up.

Remember ADS Veolia was bought hardly a month later by ADS, owned by Highstar Capital of New York City? Look at ADS’s bid for Proposal D: $18.39.

That’s $220.68 a year. Which is even higher than Wakulla County, Florida’s $196 a year, which Gretchen warned us all about more than a year ago. And more than double the $100 a year for the former county waste collection sites.

Want to guess how much ADS’s monthly rates will rise? Maybe to what ADS proposed: $18.39 a month or $220.68 a year.

So the Lowndes County Commission chose the high bid from Veolia, in awarding an exclusive franchise (monopoly) to a company now owned by investors from New York City, which parent company bid 40% more than Veolia’s high bid. And as a monopoly, that company has every incentive to raise its price to what it originally bid, for the profit of its New York City investors. Is that a good reason for the county to sue a local competitor out of business?

-jsq

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