3598 - 54 Oppose Ohio Bell rate increase

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a _ ~ ~ BESOLUTIOi~ BTO. X59$ BX Ptr. fiottermeyer A R~SOLQTIOtd to evidence and record the apposition of this Council, an bsha.l#' of the citiaens and telephone rate payers of the Gity of Lakewood to any increase at this time in tel®phane rates of The Ohio Bell ~elephone Company. '[~HEEtEAS, the interest 0t the ctisens of the City of Lake- woad with regard to telephone rates is substantially the same as that of the citisens of the Cleveland area geasrally; and 1rIHExBAS `Phe Qhia Be11 fislephone Camppany has filed az~ application for ~ncreased rates with the Public Utilities Gcsmaission of Ohio which will. increase tele~hans bi71s in the Cleveland area ~ upwards of ~ti,,000,000.40 annually; atad tTHF.~,F~AS, The Ohia Bell Telephone Company*s rates to a ma~arity of residsntia customers in the Cleveland area have been increased aver 20 per cent since the first part of 14~r9 and far those residential eustamers who can only .afford the cheapest grade of service the increase has been 30 per cent; and ~HB2BA3, the last increase in The Ohia Bell Telephone Company*s rates was made 3eptemb®r 1 195:, and lees than sixteen months bad elapsed when the Company ~iled the pending appliaaticn ,for another rats increase; and i~HHEEREAS, The Ohio Bell Telephone Company agreed before the Public utilities Commission to the September 1952 rates and agrees to the earning rats which would result tram the increased revenues under such rates; and WHEf~BAB, The 9hio Bell Telephone Company+s ending appli- cation shows its present earning rats to be substantially that to xhich it agreed in .195x; and t'HERgAS, there are canvlacing indications. that aver the sight post-war years The Ohio $ell Telephone Company has bean tho most profitable of all subsidiary operating camppani~~ comprising the vast Bell system, measuring profitableness by ;return on in- vested capital; and VF8E2~8AS. The Ohio Bell Telephone Company+s eustamers wot.ld hav® paid 20 000+000.00 less in telephone bi11s tar the five-year period 199 to 1953 if The Ohia Bell Telephone Company's earning rate had been no more than the average earning rate of the five Bell compani~~ serving the neighboring states aP N'ew York, Fennsylvania, Michigan, Illinois and Indiana; and ~JHEREAS, The Ohio Bell Telephone Company+s customers era further discriminated against by a policy of the parent company,. the American Telephone and Telegraph Company, which results in Ohio Bell+s customers paying an un~ust amount of federal income taxes in their telephone bills; an ~1HH~iEAS, The Qhio Beil Telephone Company*s appraisal of its property far purpose of attaining a rate increase is ineansis- tent and un3ust in that, for example its General Office Building an Huron ktoad is assumed to have a 1~fe of k2 years for accruing depreciation charges tut in the Company+s apprya°ear~;ttherabilOing- is assumed to have a life of aver ttva hundred y vsr stating the appraisal; and