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Electric Rates

Last year, when the Second Taxing District had to raise its electric rates by 20%, I proposed that we create an Energy Assistance Program, funded by a 1 mill surcharge on electric bills, for people who were just unable to cope with the increase. That proposal was met with deafening silence.

Last night, we effectively raised our rates another 12%. As we debated increasing our “Purchased Power Adjustment” charge to compensate for the fact that increases in our costs has had us selling electricity for less than we’ve been paying for it, I added Energy Assistance to the motion. After a lengthy debate, it was finally passed with the following differences from my original proposal:

  • Only assistance with electric bills was provided, not water bills.
     
  • Instead of a 1 mill addition to customers’ bills, we added an expense line item to the budget. This simplified our implementation and minimized how much our staff would have to do.
     
  • Instead of our processing individual disbursements in-house, NEON will be give a check for the entire amount, from which they will process individual disbursements (which is what their program already does). This was to minimize our overhead in administering this program.
     
  • The commissioners will receive quarterly reports on the program so that we can monitor its effectiveness and the appropriateness of its disbursements.

Every time we’ve raised our rates, I’ve thought of my mother living on a fixed income in Vermont and the impact increases in her electric bills have had on her. We can’t lower the cost of the power we must purchase (until our power plant is finally rebuilt), but at least we can help those customers who will be “pushed over the edge” by yet another rate increase.