BY BRADEN CARTWRIGHTDaily Post Staff Writer
Over the next five years, the city of Palo Alto is planning to raise utility rates for the average resident by $174 per month.
A divided Utilities Advisory Commission wants council to transfer less revenue from natural gas bills to other city services as a way to protect residents from a large rate hike.
“These rates are going to really go up a lot,” Commissioner Phil Metz said on Tuesday.
City plans on budget cuts
Assistant City Manager Kiely Nose warned commissioners that council is already facing $15 million in cuts for the fiscal year starting on July 1, and reducing a transfer from natural gas bills would mean further cuts.
Commissioners voted 4-3 on Tuesday (March 31) to recommend a 7% rate hike for natural gas bills, down from 9% recommended by Utilities Director Alan Kurotori.
To get there, council would need to spend reserves or reduce the 18% transfer from natural gas bills to the city’s general fund.
Commissioners Rachel Croft, Chris Tucher and Utsav Gupta voted against the recommendation to council.
Tucher said the city is investing too much money in a natural gas business in decline.
“We’re talking about decommissioning it,” he said.
Kurtori clarified the city is studying a transition away from gas but is federally required to maintain and invest in the gas system.
A natural gas rate hike of 9% would raise the average customer’s bill by $7.30 per month, Senior Resource Planner Lisa Bilir said. The increase varies depending on how much gas someone uses.
Commissioners on Tuesday also recommended a 6% increase for electricity, or $5.10 per month for the average resident.
Commissioners on March 4 recommended an 8% increase for water and 16% for sewers, both coming out to about $10 for the average resident.
And the total is …
Starting on July 1, the average resident is facing a $36.30 monthly rate hike for electricity, gas, water, sewers, trash pickup and storm drains.
Similar rate hikes are planned for the next four years, bringing average monthly bills from $441.50 now to $615.70 by 2031, or from $5,298 to $7,388 per year.
That’s a total $2,090 annual increase.
This is called increasing unaffordability. I’m sure there’s plenty of wasteful spending that could be cut, like public works make-work projects.
“Assistant City Manager Kiely Nose warned commissioners that council is already facing $15 million in cuts for the fiscal year starting on July 1, and reducing a transfer from natural gas bills would mean further cuts.”
That might be because the wasteful spending never ends — $27,000,000 for consultants with no local knowledge who think Stanford Shopping Center is downtown but never get fired — generous padded retirement packages for top staffers already making top dollars, a huge and growing staff for the City Manager and of course PA’s very costly Fiber To The Home project for which there was NO BUSINESS PLAN but which our leaders assure us will compete with big established players like AT&T ALREADY offering this service ….
All this from a city which has left South PA — the fastest growing part of the city –without a fire engine since the pandemic.
The list goes on and on for a city ALREADY overcharging us $24,000,000 for utilities to bolster the wasteful spending and unproductive virtue-signalling.
We’re already paying for a THIRD survey of our willingness to support additional sales and parcel taxes even though support keeps dropping each time and will probably drop again as our “leaders” keep polling us hoping to get the answers it wants since several council members are confused by our opposition finding it a “real head-scratcher.”
But never fear, with our 41% decline in sales tax revenue PA’s had an Outdoor Activation Manager focusing exclusively on revitalizing Cal Ave to follow up on the work of the retail consultants.
No wonder the Retail Committee has made more bars a top priority. (Just ignore the fact the new bars will threaten already struggling restaurants.)