93.9 The Eagle – The News and Talk of Columbia, MO
Your electric utility bill in Columbia will increase by about 6.9 percent later this month. Columbia’s city council voted 5-2 in June to approve the rate increase.
City manager De’Carlon Seewood says Columbia hasn’t raised rates for several years.
“What a lot of utilities do they look at their costs and they know annually you have to do small adjustments. And so if we were doing one or half-percent or those two percent increases on a regular basis, we wouldn’t find ourselves at this point doing a large increase,” Seewood says.
The rate increase was recommended by Columbia Water and Light, which says the increase is necessary to address an increase in operation and maintenance expenses as well as to maintain cash reserve levels.
Mr. Seewood says an $8.3-milion electric utility rate increase will go partially towards operations. It will take effect later this month.
“We have employees so. You know the cost for employees goes up, the cost for equipment has gone up. And so it’s operations, it’s capital projects, it’s all of those,” says Seewood.
Columbia homeowners, renters and business owners will see the increase. Columbia’s mayor has told 939 the Eagle News that her recent vote to approve an electric utility rate increase was a tough one.
“Anytime you are voting to increase the cost of a family’s living right, it’s hard. I also had to take into consideration that we need a financially-stable and high-rated by debt, by our credit ratings, utility. And at the end of the day, that will help us save money in the long-term as well as have resilient and reliable electricity for our community,” Mayor Buffaloe told 939 the Eagle News in late June.
You can listen to host Fred Parry’s full interview with Mr. Seewood here.
