ALEC Board Member - Moffitt (NC) Stealing City Water System

I saw this - this morning and really could not grasp what I had read.

In our part of the state, legislators associated with the pro-privatization, pro-corporatization group ALEC (the American Legislative Exchange Council) took the shocking step of having the state seize Asheville’s award-winning public water system without compensation. Locals fear this is the first step in privatizing one of the purest watersheds in the country.

State legislation that intentionally and with malice, STEALS a cities water system.

So I went looking for more and found this

An informational site about the legislative attempt to remove control of Asheville/Buncombe's water system from the City of Asheville, and to take that precedent to other communities. 

Mar. 28th In a bill that does not mention "Asheville" even once, NC Reps. Moffitt, McGrady, and Ramsey initiate the unprecedented State theft of a municipal water system, and the City-owned watershed that feeds it. After seizing the assets belonging to the City of Asheville, the "Regionalization of Public Utilities" bill sets up a new category of State-chartered agency that could be established in any County in North Carolina: one that municipalities could then be forced to turn over their water or sewer assets to without compensation.

June 4th: The General Assembly passes H252, the "Asheville Tranfers" bill. This legislation repeals the City of Asheville's ability to use water revenues to repair streets and sidewalks related to water system maintenance. This takes that amount off the ledger of costs/savings resulting from a merger of the water system with MSD. The last veil is pulled aside: the merger will lead to higher costs and eventually higher rates for water.

"Rep. Tim Moffitt, a Buncombe County Republican who is the primary proponent of the Asheville water system transfer, would not say why or by whom the language affecting Greenville was inserted into the environmental amendments bill.

Tim Moffitt sits on the ALEC Board of Directors.

And even now I am shaking my head - trying to wrap my head around this.
 

I think of this quote from the president of Nestle' (who at one time was a member of ALEC) -
Awhile ago – I did a post that included a video with the President of Nestle stating:
 
              Access to water is not your right
                 believing you have a right to water - is an extreme belief
              Water is a raw material and a "foodstuff" that should be
                   privatized and commercialized.
 

Knowing that other ALEC members will try this, if Moffitt is successful.

Thinking about how the state legislature and governor have screwed the city of Detroit

What happened in the end - who knows
- the fact that it happened at all
is a travesty in a democratic representative republic of, for and by the people.

and thinking

What in the hell is happening to the United States?

Who is going to stop this colossal political clusterfuck, facilitated by the distribution of ALEC legilsation and caused by ALEC legislators?

Another example
of legislation that artificially and forcibly manipulates
the "free market"
using American Legislative Exchange Council legislation
     - to benefit ALEC's corporate benefactors.

ALEC MUST BE DESTROYED.
ALEC legislators must NOT be re-elected.

Pull your money from ALEC corporate members and tell them you did so because of their affiliation with ALEC.  BUY LOCAL.