Melissa Houston
COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ)
Columbia residents’ electric, water and trash utility rates are set to increase on Thursday.
The Columbia City Council approved the increase in a meeting on Aug. 3. The raised rates include:
Electricity is raised by 6%.
Water is raised by 10%.
Trash is raised depending on size of trash cart.
The electric utility rate increase is expected to generate roughly $8.6 million, and the water increase is expected to generate $3.4 million.
City of Columbia Utilities Director Erin Keys said the increase reflects broader inflation nationwide.
“Prices of everything are going up. You know, the gas and groceries and all those things. So it’s the same with utilities,” Keys said. “The materials that we’re buying to do our work are going up and so we have to, we have to pay for that.”
Keys said not only have fuel prices gone up, but prices of concrete, conduit, pipe, and wire have all gone up significantly in the last couple of years, and the city has to accommodate to keep servicing customers.
“This is an attempt just to keep pace with that so that we can continue to provide excellent customer service as far as reliability and maintaining our infrastructure, because every day our existing infrastructure gets older and we need to be able to maintain that and replace it as needed so that we can continue to provide these good services to our community,” Keys said.
The electric increase will help cover higher energy procurement costs and a growing demand for infrastructure improvements. The water increase will help cover additional maintenance, operations, capital improvements, reserve levels, and debt coverage, according to previous reporting.
The increase is part of a larger trend. Bank of America reported this month that average utility bills in August increased by about 5.3% year-over-year nationwide.
CBS News reported in February that regulators nationwide approved dozens of rate increases last year, citing an analysis by PowerLines. Meanwhile, Ameren Missouri has requested a 10% rate hike for its electricity customers.
Residents in Columbia have expressed frustrations about this increase, like Gabriel Watkins-Mocumia, who has lived in the city his whole life.
“Where’s my money going is the question,” Watkins-Mocumia said. “There’s been an increase on top of all the other cost-of-living things going up; it’s just a bit frustrating. And we don’t really have a ton to see, like from the revenue generated.”
Watkins-Mocumia said he is concerned for the elderly and lower-income people in Columbia as winter approaches.
“We do have a significant elderly population in Columbia, Missouri,” Watkins-Mocumia said. “There’s a lot of lower-class and middle-class people that, maybe if they can’t afford the electricity bills that month, they might turn the A/C down, turn the heat off in the winter, and that could be detrimental to their health or even fatal.”
“Round Up” the cities utility assistance program is a resource residents can utilities if they are struggling to pay for utilities bill. Keys said residents can head over to the health department and apply for the program as well as various non-profits that will help the community.
“There’s also a number of nonprofits around, they can help if they have a really bad month, where their bills were really high. Those are organizations that can help,” Keys said.
Keys also said utility services will offer rebates and low-interest loans to customers who want to make sustainable improvements to their homes. This includes adding insulation, replacing windows, and replacing toilets that use less water.
For day-to-day precautions to help lower costs, Keys recommends drying clothes outside when weather permits, unplugging appliances when they’re not in use, and lowering or increasing thermostats depending on the weather.
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