Thursday, May 30, 2019

Georgetown Electric - the Gift that Keeps on Taking

The city mid-year budget amendment shows the extent of the costs imposed on residents by the decision to go with renewable energy on 20 and 25 year contracts.

Keep in mind the FY2019 electric budget included a 4.33% increase in base rate effective January 1, 2019.

The initial 2019 budget identified the following expense line items in the Electric fund:

Purchased Power                 $48,000,000
Congestion Credits              ($ 3,500,000)
Transfer to General Fund      $ 5,610,000

The budget was amended on January 8, 2019.

Power Cost Adjustment                $2,469,834
Reduce General Fund transfer to $4,325,000

The budget was again amended May, 28, 2019 and included the following expense line items.

Purchased Power                 $53,185,477
Congestion Credits              ($ 3,000,000)
Legal Fees                            $   455,000
Salary Savings                     ($   171,004)

The net increase in the expenditures for the Electric Fund is $5,969,473 since January 8, 2019. You might ask where are they getting this additional $6M? Why, they are increasing the Power Cost Adjustment to bring in another $6M. Coupled with the Power Cost Adjustment in January, the city is extracting $8.5M from the rate payers just through the PCA!

Oh! Isn't it wonderful that the city is now incurring $.5M in legal fees related to the renewable energy! Who knows when that will quit?

Notice the city is still transferring $4,325,000 to the General Fund from the Electric Fund. Why is that??? Shouldn't Electric Fund revenue be used to pay Electric Fund expenses?




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