Mysterious survey questions Montara water buyout

Residents of the Montara Water and Sewer District have received a mail-in questionnaire that has left some wondering whether the sender wants more than their opinion [pdf].

The poll asks six simple questions:

• Since August 2003, how would you rate water service compared to prior periods?
• Do you pay the property taxes at the address to which this questionnaire was mailed?
• If yes, have you noticed a significant increase in your property taxes since Montara and Moss Beach issued General Obligation Bonds for the water system?
• Are you aware that Montara and Moss Beach homeowners are paying an additional $169 a year in property taxes per $100,000 of the assessed value of their home for the same water service they had before? (That means a $500,000 home pays an extra $845 per year in taxes PLUS their regular-water bill.)
• Would you vote for this measure again knowing what you know now?
• Please comment on the amount of the tax increase and any thoughts or feelings you may have about this matter:

One recipient posted a message to the midcoast-l mailing list saying, "It is blatantly a push poll." A push poll is intended to shape the recipient’s opinion, rather than to collect it objectively.

The poll is the work of Adrian Moore, vice president of research of the Reason Public Policy Institute, a libertarian think tank in Santa Monica. The RPPI has a long record of research supporting privatization of water and wastewater utilities, which you’d expect from "a public policy think tank promoting choice, competition, and a dynamic market economy as the foundation for human dignity and progress".  According to the Foundation’s web site:

Mr. Moore oversees all the Institute’s policy research. That research includes a focus on issues pertaining to education and child welfare, transportation, urban land use and economic development, environmental quality, and privatization. His own research focuses on privatization, government reform, and infrastructure

Moore told me that he focused on MWSD because there are few case studies that allow you to compare public and private ownership of utilities. Moore says he expects to use the results of this survey as part of a larger study of public/private utility ownership, or possibly "there would be enough interest for it to be a standalone document."

I asked Moore if he wasn’t predetermining the outcome by telling people their property taxes had gone up right before he asked them if they would vote for the measure again. Perhaps it would make more sense to ask how they felt about buying the water company before exploring the impact of the tax increase.  He said, "We thought about that. But we felt that specifically because the purchase entailed a rate increase [sic] that it was good to ask it that way."

I used to be a Research Director at big international market research firm.  I’d fire any analyst who brought me a survey so clearly designed to elicit a specific response.

I asked him if perhaps he should have rephrased the questionnaire to read:

• Are you aware that The California American Water Co., which used to own the Montara water system, is seeking a rate increase of 108% for its water customers in Felton?
• Would you vote for this measure again knowing what you know now?

He didn’t really have a reply to that question.

The question is whether Moore’s survey is intended merely to generate pro-privatization propaganda or might have another, more local motive. Moore says that the project was not specifically funded by any donor.  RPPI solicits grants as an organization and that all research is funded out of the Institute’s budget. In 2000, Reason Foundation, RPPI’s parent, had at least four water companies listed as donors. Moore says that there were only two in 2004, but it also means he’s keeping track.

Moore tells me that the individual responses to the survey, including names and addresses of all respondents, will be available for free from RPPI when the project is completed.