KCEC Myth and Reality
(Breaking News) The Kit Carson Gang of Nine Trustees will meet in secret on Monday, March 26, and at their public meeting, the last Tuesday on March 27 at 9 am. Hold on to your wallets as your electric bills continue to rise. On Tuesday, the Town Council will hear an item concerning the request for the KCEC Command Center subsidy: Hold on to your wallets as town taxes rise in response to the Coop follies.
“Do you know? Businesses increasingly use video chats to decrease expensive business travel; routinely exchange very large files with clients and vendors; and depend on offsite backups to safeguard essential data. Slow connections sap productivity and efficiency, allowing competitors a significant advantage.*v*Christopher Mitchell-New Rules Project”–High Speed Internet Infrastructure Progress Update. See kitcarson.com
The KCEC Broadband hype, referred to above, comes from the Coop’s web site. The high-speed Internet project is one of the most amazing ventures since the beginning of the Rural Electrification Association (REA). But the apparent attempt to build the $64 million Internet infrastructure appears to be more folly than fortune except for the lucky few.
Nobody can deny the huge impact of rural electrification and its benefits. Due to low-interest federal loans from the USDA (United States Department of Agriculture) and its RUS (Rural Utility Services) department, northern New Mexico homes and businesses benefitted. The success of the program is a tribute to the public—private partnership, governed by trustees and appointed managers, ultimately responsible to its members.
Whereas the construction of an electrical grid filled a vacuum years ago and continues to operate as a monopoly, the Broadband project must compete with numerous national and local service providers, including Taos Net, Century Link, Comcast, and the latest technology–hotspots. Apparently, you can buy a smartphone, set it next to your laptop, create a “hotspot” and connect to the Internet via wireless transmission. The cost of Internet service continues to decline, due to competition.
The success of local electrical Cooperatives has been due to the state and federal regulation of a “Monopoly.” Ratepayers guarantee the revenue stream for the Coop just as taxpayers guarantee the life of local government. Local government has a monopoly on certain services just as the Coop has a monopoly on electricity.
The rapid changes in technology require a competitive culture. A new species of flexible and youthful “Geeks” created the modern communication infrastructure. Nationally and locally, the Coop is represented by retro trustees, who are focused more on supplementing their income with per diem pay and travel benefits or signing up family members and cronies to lucrative sweetheart contracts. The KCEC Coop has lost millions of dollars in the attempt to provide Propane and Internet services. Now the core of the Coop’s electrical assets are being threatened by further Broadband adventurism.
Where is the justification for a $64 million fiber optic expansion into rural upstate New Mexico with its low-density population and slim-to-none economic base? The prudent culture of the past has been jettisoned in favor of the newest technological fashions, which shelf life is as short as the latest news. As if to underscore the absurdity of technological readiness in the community, the latest scandal at the Coop concerns member money being used to trim trees and provide a free woodpile for an influential supporter of Penasco area trustees. Giving away free wood doesn’t help sell propane or electricity—though we applaud, the mixed-use resource approach of the Coop–wood, coal, solar, hydro, and propane–necessary resources for survival.
But Taosenos have their telephones for communication and a variety of Internet sources to choose from in the marketplace. Without the enormous subsidies from the electric side, the Coop cannot compete with ingenious entrepreneurs in El Norte when it comes to propane and Internet services, or even notaries and private year-round wood haulers.
Due to the folly of the trustees and their CEO, the descendants of Coop members will be stuck with a legacy of debt. The Trustees and CEO are more interested in economic exploitation at home and entertainment for themselves at nationwide fun centers than in benefitting the long-term interests of the broad-based membership. Now the trustees and the CEO are also trying to saddle the Town of Taos with the bill for the Command Center, a symbol of hubris and folly, prompted by a personal vendetta against town cops and E911 personnel.
The Command Center, a completely unnecessary and unwanted facility, is being shoved down the throat of the Town—the legacy of the retrograde culture at the Coop. If Peter successfully blackmails or bribes Paul, the Trustees will get the pottage, hundreds of thousands of dollars from the Town Councilors—who are also members of the Coop–to pay for that famed photo op with Senator Pete. See the symbol of this blown-up moment on the back wall at the KCEC Boardroom–the big check for the loan from USDA-RUS for the public relations putsch.
The real deals are done in the back room at KCEC. If you need your trees trimmed or a wood supply–or an out of town signature notarized–Call KCEC: 758-2258. The Trustees are served by the Coop members they own.