Columnist Jeff German: Hired gun Horowitz in power play

Wednesday, Oct. 23, 2002 | 10:57 a.m.

Nevada Power and its business allies are going all out to derail Question 14 in the last two weeks of the general election.

Their latest move is to buy the services of well-known "consumer advocate" David Horowitz, who's appearing in television ads asking us to vote against the advisory ballot initiative on Nov. 5.

The measure encourages the Legislature to remove a legal roadblock that prevents a government agency from pursuing a hostile takeover of a utility, such as Nevada Power.

Horowitz -- star of the long-running national television show, "Fight Back With David Horowitz," until it went off the air in 1996 -- won't say how much he's being paid as a hired gun for the Nevada Power coalition.

"I never discuss what I earn," he said. "But I don't do anything for a living that I don't believe in."

But you can be sure that Horowitz is getting big bucks.

Very few consumer advocates would take up sides with a utility that is perceived as gouging the public -- without a huge payday.

Nevada's consumer advocate, Timothy Hay, certainly isn't backing Nevada Power. He likes the idea of a publicly run utility and supports Question 14. He also is backing the Southern Nevada Water Authority's independent $3.2 billion bid to buy the power company.

Hay, who works out of the attorney general's office, sees the alliance between the California-based Horowitz and the Nevada Power coalition as a sign the opposition is desperate to find a credible voice in this fight.

But how credible is Horowitz?

The Foundation for Taxpayer and Consumer Rights, which also is based in California, describes Horowitz as a "paid political hack" who uses his credentials to win lucrative contracts with utility companies to promote their positions on public policy issues.

In 1998, for example, Horowitz received $136,000 from California utilities to fight a ballot initiative there that would have cut electric bills by 20 percent. Last year Horowitz did television ads pushing a $21 billion taxpayer bailout in California for those same utilities.

Now he's helping Nevada Power fend off a takeover that would save taxpayers money.

Horowitz says he has bought into Nevada Power's argument questioning the merit of putting the company in the hands of "inexperienced bureaucrats."

"My experience has always been where government takes over anything in this area, it really doesn't know how to handle it and get it off the ground," he said.

But Horowitz must have forgotten about the nation's largest public utility in his own backyard, the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power, which not only survived California's energy crisis, but hasn't raised rates since 1992.

New York's Long Island Power Authority, which reduced its rates by 20 percent when it was created in 1998, also probably slipped his memory.

Still, Horowitz wants us to "fight back" on Election Day before we make a mistake he says we'll regret.

With all due respect to Horowitz, let's look at our choice here.

We can stand by Nevada Power -- a company with a poor credit rating that recently raised our rates and sought $921 million in taxpayer funds to cover bad business decisions.

Or we can side with the Southern Nevada Water Authority -- a well-run public utility with an excellent credit rating that says its takeover will save taxpayers 20 percent on their monthly electric bills.

Which choice would you make?

Horowitz insists that the water authority's rate-reduction promise is a "bunch of bull."

"It's based on speculative mathematics and what they think is going to happen," he said.

But Hay, who's not a hired gun for the power company, doesn't share that opinion.

"I am confident there will be additional cost savings associated with the transfer of the assets that will be shared with ratepayers," he said. "Having the option of creating a municipal utility may be the key to a longterm solution to Nevada Power's problems."

So which consumer advocate has more credibility? The paid mouthpiece? Or the public servant?

If you go with the public servant, than you should be leery of David Horowitz the next time you see him on television asking you to fight back on Nov. 5.

And you should be leery of the strategy Nevada Power and its allies are using to scare us into voting against Question 14.

To borrow a phrase from the opposition: "The more you know about (their strategy), the less you like it."