Gainesville Regional Utilities is set to present their increased budget proposal to the City Commission Wednesday. Despite a decrease in electric and gas units, prices on maintaining water and wastewater rose, increasing the average bill a consumer could expect to pay by $2.
Though this increase is minimal, it’s still noticable over the longhaul, particularly when GRU officials consider local residents have conserved water very well over the past year. The problem however, lies in rising fixed costs attributed to aspects such as water and wastewater. While consumers aren’t spending as much on water, the company has to continue to pay more each year to maintain safe service, thus creating a problem is a downturn economy.
GRU’s budget goals, according to Chief Financial Officer Jennifer Hunt, were to hold needed price changes to a minimum, which the Utilities company achieved by limiting budget increase to 1%. Under the proposed budget, the expected average bill would raise from $198 to $200.24.