Political Populism not Partisanship Divides PSC

I guess we could increase the alliteration to say "Presley's Political Populism not Partisanship or Posey Divides PSC."

Brandon Presley (D) is at it again. It seems every month the Northern District Public Service Commissioner not only disagrees with his colleagues, but feels he must be disagreeable. It isn't enough for him to lose a vote, he has to attempt to score political points against his fellow commissioners and mislead the press while he is at it.

June - (Y'all Politics covered it well) Presley announced he had voted against a rate hike and went on the radio to say, "The proposed rate increase is $14.5 million that comes at a terrible time for Mississippi consumers. So, this rate increase is going into effect during the hottest months of the year, and I felt that it just wasn’t a justified rate increase." Presley lost the vote 2-1. Funny though, Public Service Commission Chairman Lynn Posey (D), who was joined by Commissioner Leonard Bentz (R) in voting against Presley, released a statement announcing a reduction in rates. Eventually WLBT caught up with Presley who admitted that yes, in fact, it was a rate reduction. For this, Presley lost not only the vote, but credibility.

August - Presley "lashed out" at Posey and Bentz over the Ratepayers Bill of Rights. Again came the dueling press releases. Again Presley looked foolish as he whined about not getting his way, while his colleagues took the high road and actually praised him.

September - Time for Presley to make the scene again. This time after again losing another 2-1 vote, he fired off a press release accusing a regulated utility of effectively contributing to the hardships of "Mississippi families" as they "struggle through some of the worst economic times since the Great Depression". He proudly claimed to have cast the lone vote against this scheme. What he didn't say was his plan to pull these families out of "the Great Depression" amounted to less than $3 a month for three months. In other words, Brandon Presley envisions himself Franklin Delano Roosevelt by letting someone order not quite three things off the McDonald's Dollar Menu once a month. What would we do without him?

Again, Posey follows up with a statement of his own. It seems Presley left out a major item...a rate reduction! In addition to the rate reduction, the PSC deferred some returns to ratepayers for a quarter to help stabilize rates. During that deferment, ratepayers will be earning interest at the prime rate plus one percent. Presley somehow neglected to mention that as well. Posey said, “In my judgment, this plan will reduce the burden on customers by providing reasonable rates with stability and eliminating dramatic fluctuations in bills which customers have not budgeted for. Since natural gas costs are now at their lowest in several years, I think it is wise to prepare now for these costs rising next spring when electricity usage goes up.”

Posey argued for rate stability. Something most families and businesses appreciate when it comes to a budget. That is not partisanship. That is being reasonable.

This is not a partisan split. Posey is a real Democrat. Bentz is a real Republican. But they also respect their roles as quasi-judicial regulators. Presley on the other hand sees this as his opportunity to exercise his political ambitions. That is unfortunate to ratepayers and to Mississippi.

Our advice to the media in the future is to wait on the truth from Posey and Bentz before jumping on the populist spin of Brandon Presley.