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Households receiving power are a superset of tax households. I assume household income is the sum of all taxpayers? I hope this is done in a privacy preserving

Households receiving power are a superset of tax households. I assume household income is the sum of all taxpayers? I hope this is done in a privacy preserving way where you don't need to tell your PGE bill paying roommate your income. But even then that seems impossible. If my roommate makes $50k a year and I make > $130k, it seems it's impossible to not reveal that fact to him unless they are assessing fees per taxpayer.

mindslight 4y ago
Why would you even tell them about your roommates? Sure they might come up with some ways of hassling you based on the historical occupancy of a premises, instrumented usage patterns, etc. But the underlying dynamic is to give them the fewest "income" figures that will end their questions, since verifying an absence of something is generally tough. The way by-income stuff is normally done is either on tax forms directly (obviously), or as subsidies for very low income such that they people who really need and want it are willing to jump through the paperwork hoops and spill their personal information. If this has been decided as the appropriate public policy, then it should be assessed right on the state income tax filing. But instead this perverse private-public "partnership" (read: corruption) makes it so that regulators have thought it appropriate for "private" companies to be directly involved in financial surveillance. So they aren't bound by the statutory secrecy of government, while the fact they're monopolies means you can't avoid them.
- usaar333 4y ago
  Wouldn't it be suspicious for a state income tax filing to not to be linked to a listed electricity rate payer? Or are you arguing no one will ever audit?
  - mindslight 4y ago
    Audit what? Does this regulation create a responsibility for taxpayers to declare their residence(s) on their tax forms, with a statutory responsibility to be paying the utility company for residing there? If there isn't, then there really is little downside to telling the electric company that only one person is living somewhere.

mindslight 4y ago

Why would you even tell them about your roommates? Sure they might come up with some ways of hassling you based on the historical occupancy of a premises, instrumented usage patterns, etc. But the underlying dynamic is to give them the fewest "income" figures that will end their questions, since verifying an absence of something is generally tough. The way by-income stuff is normally done is either on tax forms directly (obviously), or as subsidies for very low income such that they people who really need and want it are willing to jump through the paperwork hoops and spill their personal information. If this has been decided as the appropriate public policy, then it should be assessed right on the state income tax filing. But instead this perverse private-public "partnership" (read: corruption) makes it so that regulators have thought it appropriate for "private" companies to be directly involved in financial surveillance. So they aren't bound by the statutory secrecy of government, while the fact they're monopolies means you can't avoid them.

usaar333 4y ago
Wouldn't it be suspicious for a state income tax filing to not to be linked to a listed electricity rate payer? Or are you arguing no one will ever audit?
- mindslight 4y ago
  Audit what? Does this regulation create a responsibility for taxpayers to declare their residence(s) on their tax forms, with a statutory responsibility to be paying the utility company for residing there? If there isn't, then there really is little downside to telling the electric company that only one person is living somewhere.