Last week City Council approved a 4.25% rate hike for CPS Energy customers. This increase was the second in the last two years, and CPS has been clear that it intends to ask for additional rate increases over the next few years. This isn’t fair to customers, and the City of San Antonio must find other ways to address the utility’s needs.
CPS asked for this latest rate hike because it needs to upgrade its aging infrastructure and prepare for the city’s growth in a responsible manner, both priorities that council members agree need funding. My issue is not with CPS, though I believe it could certainly tighten its belt. My beef is with how we spend money as a city, and that every time we need more, it’s residents that we ask to pay for all of it.
The economy is in bad shape nationwide and especially here in San Antonio. The average hourly wage residents earn is less than the Texas average, and our businesses are struggling to fight back from pandemic shutdowns. It’s not the time to ask residents to pay higher rates, it’s time for city leaders to look for alternatives.
Per the city charter, 14% of CPS Energy’s annual revenue goes to San Antonio’s general fund. Last year, the contribution made up about a quarter of the city’s budget. While the city spends some of that money on important city functions such as public safety, infrastructure and economic development, we also spend it in many other ways that amount to wants rather than needs — and whose return-on-investment metrics are not existent. Other expenditures are just downright frivolous.
So why not cut spending on the city side on some of those wants and on some of the agencies that are not producing results, reinvest those savings into CPS and minimize — or eliminate — the need to raise rates on our residents? That was the plan I presented to City Council last week, and we came so close to getting it approved.
As we move forward, the five votes we got show there is momentum toward finding a better way to fund CPS moving forward. Yes, the long-term health and sustainability of CPS must be a top priority for us on City Council, but the burden rate hikes place on residents must always be top of mind. So, as we move into the next budget cycle, we on City Council must do the hard work necessary to find a way to take some of next year’s money given to us by CPS and reinvest it into the utility so that we can decrease the need for future rate hikes. It’s the right move for CPS, the city and the people of San Antonio.
