COLORADO SPRINGS — Rate increases are most likely coming for Colorado Springs Utilities customers, starting as early as January.
News5's Lindsey Jensen went downtown to gauge how people are feeling about this proposal.
"[Budgets] are tight as is and they would get a lot tighter," said a resident, Megan Vanloon.
"It's not appropriate to put people in a situation where they choose between keeping the lights on and or having to feed themselves or their children," said a resident, Alice Cunningham.
Typically, rate increases are presented on an annual basis but Springs Utilities says it needs more money to pay for infrastructure accommodating for growth and state regulations.
This is why it's hoping to get approval for rate increases on water, gas, electricity, and wastewater every year for the next five years. As the current proposal stands, customers could be paying about $80 more a month in 2029 compared to their current bills.
"These are significant increases for our customers," Tristan Gearhart, Chief Planning and Financial Officer for Colorado Springs Utilities said Tuesday, "We don't take that lightly. We know that that is something that presses the community."
"You have to eat and pay bills, so [an increase would mean] me pulling from my savings and putting off things like putting a roof on my house," said a resident, Todd Hudson.
The proposed increases are even higher for commercial customers like small business owners.
"It's certainly worth it if it means we can keep making our coffee with this great water and be able to make sure we can keep the power on," said Poor Richard's owner, Richard Skorman.
The regulatory pressures Colorado Springs Utilities references is eliminating greenhouse gas reduction 80% by 2030, as required by the state. Previously the regulations set the benchmark at 50% by 2030.
Gearhart pointed to the closing of the Martin Drake Power Plant put Springs Utilities closer to the 50% mark but did not say whether or not rate increases should have been in place prior to this 5-year proposal.
The Ray Nixon power plant is also set to be decommissioned in 2030.
"Some of it just comes down to timing on this as well. We know that, Nixon coal plant actually offers a lot of value to our customers from a cost perspective, from a purely financial perspective," Gearhart said, "being able to run that plant as a baseload plant that's there at a very low cost to customers is something that definitely works out well for us."
Springs Utilities also points to growth as a need for more infrastructure, including infrastructure for a wastewater system as the city expands east. Gearhart said it could be $400 million worth of work for the system to bring on 100,000 new homes.
"That doesn't happen over a short period of time, but getting the capital infrastructure in place to be able to support that is a need that's out there right now," Gearhart said.
We wanted to know the local reaction to the proposed increase. So, our Jake Walker went downtown to talk with you, the community. Deborah Serby isn't worried about the increase “it’s it’s a better idea to keep up and let it break and never fix anything and then you get so far behind it gets worse.”
Ann Crossey says she's not thrilled about the increase but understands why. “Nobody wants to pay more if they don’t have to, but nobody wants to not have utilities so that’s it!”
The proposal was presented to the Utilities Board on Wednesday and will need to be voted on by city council before the rates would go into effect. You can watch the Utilities Board meeting below:
Colorado Springs Utilities proposes increasing base rates
To see the full details of the rate proposal, visit the following link:Colorado Springs Utilities.
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