Wise Conservation > Water Utilities
In 1914, the Conservation Committee ruminated on the latest utilities swindle, carefully weighing its response. Private water suppliers, operating in Queens and the outer boroughs, were pushing legislation in Albany that would protect them from competition. The bill, critics feared, would create a monopoly and lead to higher rates for City residents. The Chamber was torn between its support for private business and its fear of other people’s monopolies. Worst of all, the law would cede regulatory power of the water supply to the State.
Unfortunately, this bill while seeking to protect the private corporations, practically delivers the vast public water systems of New York City, in which we have invested hundreds of millions of dollars, to the control of the State Commission … This is wholly wrong in principle, in that in effect it takes away from the City its power of control over its own water system.
In this case, the Chamber concluded that the law’s particular risks outweighed the general question of supporting private business. More specifically, the members were unwilling to cede control of their own resources to any interference by the State. Therefore, the body officially registered “its disapproval of the Maier Bill and request[ed] the Governor to veto the same.”
Which, in due course, he did.