If you’re a Columbia utility customer — and that includes a lot of us who work, shop, or keep a second address in town — your bill is about to go up. The Columbia City Council voted this week to raise both electric and water rates starting October 1, according to ABC 17.
Electric rates climb 6%, passed on a 4-2 council vote, expected to bring in about $8.6 million more a year. Water rates go up 10%, approved unanimously, raising roughly $3.4 million. Council also approved trash-collection increases for the larger cart sizes — the smallest carts aren’t affected — also effective October 1.
The city says the money is going toward the unglamorous stuff that keeps the lights and water on: aging poles, pipes, and equipment that have gone without enough maintenance in recent years, plus higher costs to buy power in the first place. “Those rate increases are needed to help with infrastructure needs, maintenance on equipment, the trucks that are being driven to collect recycling and trash, the poles that we need to use and repair and replace for electrical needs,” Jason West, communication and outreach supervisor for Columbia Utilities, told ABC 17.
One thing that didn’t move: a parking-garage rate increase got sent back to the Parking Commission for another look, specifically over weekend charges, so that one’s still an open question.
If you’re budgeting ahead, the increases land on your October bill — Columbia Utilities’ rate pages have the fee schedules once they’re updated for the new fiscal year.
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