PUE board members initially proposed a 40% tax rate increase for residential and commercial customers, the amount recommended by consultants KR Saline & Associates to keep PUE solvent. Due to rising natural gas costs and a decline in hydropower generation, PUE has drawn down significantly its reserves. The board considered alternatives and rewrote the proposal many times. PUE continued to make losses, losing millions of dollars while authorities searched for an equitable solution.

After poor public hearings and opposition from within Congress, they made a surprising decision. Defying the recommendations of the PUE board and consultants, the city council voted to give residents a real break and cut the toll increase from 40% to 20%. Corporate customers still see him up 40%.

Rates will be increased in three tiers to help adjust electricity customers. The first price increase is July 1st. Private customers he increases by 10%, then on 1 October 2023 and on 1 January 2024 he increases by 5%. Commercial customers can expect a 20% increase from July 1 and a 10% increase thereafter. Increases on October 1, 2023 and January 1, 2024.

Residents will thank the soft-spoken Deputy Mayor Jeong Gok-jang for giving them a day off. He fought for it and won against his expectations. Gokjang, who attended the hearing as a citizen rather than as deputy mayor, was the only person to speak out, speak out, and offer alternatives.

The Chronicle reported on April 19, 2023 about the debate, hearings and Kotsian’s reaction:

“I’ve been in multiple businesses over the past 50 years and successful companies have adopted business models and business plans similar to what PUE does and recovers their costs.” Kokjan said. “Some people on the city council complained about the company. Well, they’re going to recoup the costs just like PUE. That’s how they continue to thrive.”

The majority of Page residents live on a minimum wage or a fixed income.

“They are the ones who will suffer. They have nowhere to get money. That means they have to give up something,” Kokjan said. “You see it on TV every day. Older people give up what they have, food, medicine, just to make ends meet.

At the time, it was assumed that the specific interest rate would increase evenly for residential and commercial accounts to 40% overall.

I have a question. How will tax increases affect businesses and low-income residents? How will this shortage affect PUE’s ability to provide reliable electricity well into the future?

Counselor David Auger said at the June 14 council meeting that PUE board members had heard KR Saline & Associates’ opinion and its recommendations “three or four times.”

“I’ve done about four of them myself,” Auger said. “They were basically good overall at 42-59%. 40% for commercial use will be the drug to swallow for many companies.”

Augge said even if the rate hike were cut in half to 20%, it would still be difficult for many Page residents.

“Many of them live paycheck to paycheck [and] I live on chips,” he said. “We hope that this will not be such a heavy burden on the public. We believe it is in the best interest of

At the City Council meeting on June 14, there was one dissenting vote from City Councilman Brian Carey.

“Hearing the word ‘hope’ appear three times makes me wonder why I’m voting for this increase. This increase won’t make the utility profitable,” Carey said. “We will not pay back the $3 million we withdrew from reserves last year to help us through the decision-making process. .”

Carey continued: “The other thing that bothers me is that the pricing structure between residential and commercial is very simple and, as the utility manager pointed out, find a good line there and be fair to people. It’s hard to find things.” SMEs operating in their own location suffer the most because they live in town and pay resident tax, but they run a small business, so they are paid at commercial rates. Because it will happen. ”

Arizona short-term vacation rental owners have an economic advantage. These must be treated as residential properties, not commercial properties. In Arizona, cities have little control over the impact of vacation rentals, including housing shortages and unfair tax incentives.

“Unfortunately, VRBO is treated as a regular residential area, which is not the city’s preference,” Mayor Bill Diack said.

“That’s because there are state regulations that say we can’t deal with them. So this is the flaw in the state system that I’ve been fighting for the last four years, and it’s not right, so I’ve been given another year and a half or so of fighting the process and time to change it. It is. ”

Carey added that one of the most common businesses in town, the owner-operated vacation rental business, would not pay commercial rates because it is residential.

“So people who make a lot of money in rentals pay much less than people who are barely making ends meet in small businesses like massage parlors, health businesses, or small CPA’s. says Carey. “Therefore, if this bill is passed, I would encourage the board to consider whether it can improve the interest rate structure and return more capital to the system in the future.”

“I once had a conversation with the deputy mayor about other power companies having eight, nine, 12 different categories to try to be fair or somehow distort the ratings. said Carey. “I encourage our board to do so. Further down our agenda, it is encouraging that we plan to return $1.6 million from the General Fund to the public works budget.”

Later that night, the city council unanimously voted to repay the 1,625,000 pesos the city borrowed during a difficult time 23 years ago.