AUSTIN (KXAN) – The Austin City Council suspended rate hikes at its Thursday City Council meeting for three separate utility companies.
City Council had three agenda items for its Thursday meeting related to proposed rate increases from Aqua Texas, Oncor Electric Delivery Company, and Texas Gas Service. City Council Members approved suspending those increases from all three companies for 90 days.
For-profit gas company Texas Gas Service recently announced plans to increase rates by around 10%. Paul Robbins, a consumer advocate, said this is the third rate increase the service has called for in around a year.
“If they get their third rate increase, rates will have gone up 132% in 10 years since 2016. This is outrageous, and it’s just got to stop,” said Robbins, who also serves on the Austin Resource Management Commission.
Council member Ryan Alter explained that when a utility service requests a rate increase, the City Council can accept or reject and negotiate a deal.
“That’s what we did today. We said, ‘Let’s pause and talk about what you’re proposing,’” Alter said.
“We just hear a steady stream of [people saying], ‘These prices seem to keep going up. Why is that?’ And so this is just another instance where we’re having that conversation,” he continued.
Some south Travis County residents were caught off guard by Aqua Texas’s rate increase announcement several weeks ago. Only around 377 Aqua Texas customers live in Austin.
Alayna White said in June she went to get the mail and found a thick packet from Aqua Texas, her water provider. After thumbing through the packet, she read that her rate would increase by 100% on July 25.
“It was a lot of paperwork, and it was very confusing for the average customer. I did not understand it. I just saw the huge increase,” White said. “I felt angry because it was a month’s notice, and it’s not a reasonable amount to increase all at once.”
White said her water bill right now is around $150 a month, and that if the rate increase goes into effect, it’ll rise to around $300 a month.