Mid

Second Class-Action Lawsuit Challenges MID Subsidy

The Modesto Irrigation District faces two separate class-action lawsuits, both accusing the utility of overcharging electricity customers to subsidize farmers’ water prices. Both ask that a judge grant class status enabling tens of thousands of electricity customers to join the lawsuit and ask for refunds. Although filed for similar reasons within two weeks of each other, the lawsuits were …


MID Raises Farm Water Prices 20 Percent – Class Action Seeks Decision Reversal

Modesto-area farmers will pay higher water rates this year, irrigation leaders decided Tuesday after a hearing dominated by a dispute over electricity customers being forced to subsidize farm water prices. The issue last week leaped from the boardroom to the courtroom with a class-action lawsuit asking a judge to reverse the 90-year-old subsidy. Some in the audience spoke about the legal…