By Staff
City will pay tap and impact fees for project
By MIKE VOSS
Contributing Editor
Washington’s City Council decided Monday night to incorporate Washington Electric Utilities’ existing retail wholesale power cost adjustment into the base kilowatt charge for each retail rate class beginning May 1.
That decision will not increase rates for the city’s power customers. Instead of listing a base charge and a wholesale power cost adjustment, a customer’s electric bill will list just one charge. That charge will be equivalent to the existing base charge and wholesale power cost adjustment.
The council also considered increasing WEU’s retail rates for its medium general service classification by 1.4 percent on April 1. The council decided to wait until it begins deliberations on the 2008-2009 budget before considering any changes to WEU’s electric rates.
The council also considered increasing WEU’s retail rates for rental outdoor lighting service and street lighting by 14.9 percent on April 1. As with the proposed increase in rates for the medium general service classification, the council decided to wait until it begins putting together the 2008-2009 spending plan before considering any changes to WEU’s electric rates.
Last fall, the city hired Booth &Associates to perform a cost-of-service study to determine if WEU’s existing electric rates were supplying the revenue needed to cover expenses of the city’s electric fund. That study, presented to the council in February, determined the medium general service retail rate classification was not being charged enough to cover the cost of providing power to customers in that classification. It also determined charges for rental outdoor lighting service and street lighting were not enough to cover the cost of providing the service.
The proposed increases will not change residential power rates or other classifications of nonresidential power rates.
The city increased electric rates in October 2006 to cover a projected $1.6 million shortfall between wholesale power purchased by Washington and revenue from retail power sales in the remainder of that fiscal year. Along with the increase, a pledge was made to perform a comprehensive cost-of-service study by the end of 2007. The study was to accomplish the following goals:
The study determined that under a true cost-of-services basis some classes of power customers have been slightly overcharged while others have been slightly undercharged. A summary of the study shows the three goals can be met with a 1.1-percent system-wide rate increase and that no single class of power customers will see its rates increase by more than 3 percent.
The cost-of-service study determined a 3-percent rate increase for residential customers would help the city meet the three goals. The study also determined a 2-percent rate decrease for small general-service customers, a 1.4-percent rate increase for medium general-service customers, a 1.5-percent rate decrease for large general-service customers, a 2.1-percent rate decrease for industrial-service customers and a 14.9 percent rate increase for outdoor lighting would help the city meet the three goals.
The study determined that those increases or decreases in those customer categories would help the city meet the three goals.
The council has the final say on increasing or decreasing electric rates.
In other action, the council approved using money from the city’s general fund to pay impact fees and tap fees for water and sewer services associated with four houses that Metropolitan Housing and CDC is building. The amount comes to $9,424, or $2,356 per house.
The Rev. David Moore, chief executive officer of Metropolitan, told the council the nonprofit is not looking for a handout. He also criticized a Washington Daily News editorial that urged the council to give careful consideration.
Councilman Archie Jennings urged the mayor and his council colleagues to give careful consideration to Moore’s request.
Before voting, Mayor Judy Meier Jennette and council members talked about Metropolitan’s efforts to provide affordable housing to first-time homebuyers and improve neighborhoods in the city by replacing substandard housing with better and affordable housing. Moore told the council the four new houses in the area of West Martin Luther King Jr. Drive and Hackney Avenue will add to the city’s tax base and produce tax revenue for years to come.
For additional coverage of the council’s meeting, see future editions of the Washington Daily News.