BY BRADEN CARTWRIGHT
Daily Post Staff Writer
Palo Alto City Council tonight (June 15) approved an 8% increase on utility bills, costing the average resident $422 more per year.
Similar rate hikes are planned for the next four years. This increase is projected to bring in $28.6 million to build up reserves and finish infrastructure projects, like replacing old pipes and transformers.
“There’s a tradeoff between having healthy reserves and keeping rates as low as we can,” Councilman Keith Reckdahl said at the meeting.
The rate increase will affect customers differently depending on how much water, electricity and gas they use. Bills for sewers are going up 16%, and gas bills are going up 9%. Water bills are going up 8%, electricity is going up 4.5%, and trash pickup is going up 3%.
Stop voting for City Council incumbents.
The money grab never ends since our “leaders” would never ever cancel contracts with useless consultants or stop wasting staff time on bogus projects.
Shame on Mayor Veenker for voting to force us to spend thousands / tens of thousands of dollars to convert to all-electric just when data centers will push rates even higher and blackouts and brownouts continue because there’s ALREADY too much demand.
Thank you, Keith Reckdahl for trying to be a voice of sanity and concern.
So 8% per year, for 5 years = 40% increase??? Is this legal?
Ridiculous Palo Alto city management. I’ll pay these utilities increase if we cut administrative staff 8%/year for the next 5 years. The city will go bankrupt soon to pay off the pensions.