PORT ANGELES — Low-income city utility discount rates that are now based on age or disability may be replaced with a more expansive — and three times more expensive — system based solely on updated federal poverty levels that are stuck in 1992, according to a city Public Works and Utilities Department report requested by the City Council.
The council, which
consented to the study at its monthly work session April 24, could enact a new ordinance later this year in time for rate changes to begin in 2013, city Deputy Director of Power Systems Larry Dunbar said in his report to the city Utility Advisory Committee.
The committee will discuss the study at its regular monthly meeting at 3 p.m. Tuesday in the City Council chambers at City Hall, 321 E. Fifth St. The committee will make a recommendation to the City Council at the committee’s June 12 meeting.
“We are kind of out of sync,” Dunbar said Monday of the city’s discount utility rates.
“It would be fair to say that since this ordinance has not been revised since 1992, it’s very outdated, and it’s not consistent with how most people determine eligibility for low-income discounts,” Dunbar said.
“This would make this up to date, and would make discounts available to more people who meet federal poverty guidelines and provide more benefits to the community in a heightened level of fairness.”
Discounts now go to low-income seniors of at least 62 years old or low-income customers with disabilities.
The program is based on federal poverty guidelines circa 1992.
If a discount ordinance is adopted that covers all utilities — electric, water, wastewater, solid-waste collection, stormwater and Medic 1 — the number of discount-rate customers would rise from 340 to 1,600.
The total annual subsidy would increase from $116,000 to nearly $400,000, Dunbar said.
If the subsidy were applied only to electric utility customers, there would be an annual savings of $33,000.
Discounts for electric rates comprise $50,000 of the $116,000 total subsidy.
“There is no free lunch here,” Dunbar said at the April work session. “It comes from our ratepayers.”
Deputy Mayor Brad Collins said he favors a standard based on income.
“Income level is a more important issue than disability or the age,” he said. “I’m anxious for it to be fixed.”
The present discount system, which was amended in 1992, goes as follows:
— 30 percent discount for $0 annual income to $7,999.
— 20 percent discount for $8,000-$11,500.
— 10 percent discount for $17,501-$21,000.
— There are no adjustments for household size or inflation.
The current program also requires participants who are property owners to take part in the department’s no-cost conservation program.
An average-payment program would be eliminated.
The 2012 federal poverty level for a single-person is $11,170; for a two-person family, $15,130; for a three-person family, $19,090, and for a four-person family, $23,050.
The Utility Advisory Committee consists of community representatives Murvan Sears II and Dean Reed, City Council members Mayor Cherie Kidd, Dan Di Guilio and Sissi Bruch, and industrial transmission customer representative Paul Elliott.
The committee will be asked Tuesday to request the City Council to set a public hearing date for the changed ordinance.
The committee, which has discussed the city’s utility discount ordinance at its four previous monthly meetings, will make a recommendation to the City Council on the proposed new ordinance at the committee’s June 12 meeting.
________
Senior Staff Writer Paul Gottlieb can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 5060, or at paul.gottlieb@peninsuladailynews.com.