Published: Fri, 12/01/23
San Antonio Express-News
By Molly Smith, Staff writer
City Council’s most liberal and conservative members are united in their opposition to CPS Energy’s rate hike request.
Jalen McKee-Rodriguez and Teri Castillo, council’s two most progressive members, and fiscal conservative Marc Whyte say CPS’ request to raise customers’ electric and gas rates by 4.25% would put too much financial burden on residential customers. Their bills would go up an average of $4.45 a month.
All three appear poised to reject the utility’s request on Dec. 7, when the mayor and City Council are expected to vote on it.
“It should not be entirely on the backs on our citizens,” Whyte, who represents District 10 on the Northeast Side, said Thursday during a council discussion of the proposed rate increase. “We need to spread this burden across the city, and I think that CPS needs to do some internal reflection as well and assist us here, and tighten its belt.”
Despite three potential “no” votes, CPS appears to have enough support on council to get its rate hike. Mayor Ron Nirenberg, who sits on the utility’s five-member board of trustees, backs the proposed increase, and a majority of the 10-member council has signaled support.
The city’s chief financial officer, Ben Gorzell, who is also the city’s public utilities supervisor, has recommended that council approve the 4.25% increase. On Thursday, he said that when the council votes next week, it could simultaneously adopt an ordinance pre-approving another CPS rate hike of up to 5.5% that would take effect in 2026.
Whyte urged the utility and the city to make cuts to their annual operating budgets so the savings could be used to defray more of CPS’ expenses. The city takes 14% of CPS’ revenue annually — it’s one of the main sources of money for the city’s general fund, which pays for basic services. But council could decide to collect less from the utility and trim its own budget.
CPS officials have said revenue from the proposed rate hike would help pay for new billing software and infrastructure upgrades and for hiring additional workers.
Castillo, who frequently butts heads with Whyte, said his comments were “spot on.”
In January 2022, McKee-Rodriguez, of District 2 on the East Side, and Castillo, of District 5 on the West Side, joined Whyte’s predecessor, then-District 10 Councilman Clayton Perry, in rejecting the 3.85% rate hike over similar concerns that it would overburden low-income families. It was the utility’s first increase since 2014.
“I feel like previous councils passed the buck and so we unfortunately need to make these difficult decisions,” District 4 Councilwoman Adriana Rocha Garcia said on Thursday.
In addition to the 2026 increase, CPS has said it likely will seek an additional increase that would take effect in 2028.
The council was divided Thursday over the idea of pre-approving a future rate hike.
District 6 Councilwoman Melissa Cabello Havrda expressed support for the idea, saying it would provide “certainty” to bondholders.
The council approved a similar multiyear process for the city-owned San Antonio Water System in 2015 when it approved a maximum increase of 114% in the water supply fee from 2017 to 2020 to pay for the Vista Ridge pipeline project.
District 9 Councilman John Courage said it wouldn’t be fair to future councils to adopt such an ordinance.
“I don’t believe in committing a future council or limiting a future council’s ability to make a decision on future rate hikes,” he said.
Approving a 2026 rate increase at this point in time would be “passing the buck,” Castillo said. “All of us have the responsibility to ask questions and make the decision based off of the data that’s going to be presented to that council.”